Articoli di riviste sul tema "Clay Products Company"

Ball clay is a fine-grained highly plastic, mainly kaolinitic, sedimentary clay, the higher grades of which fire to a white or near white colour. The paper will review the origin of the term "Ball Clay" and the location and origins of several deposits with particular emphasis on the mineralogical, physical and rheological properties which make the clays so important in ceramics bodies. Particular attention will be paid to the well known bay clay deposits of Devon and Dorset in southwest England, which are mined by ECC International Europe and Watts Blake Bearne & Company PLC, and brief descriptions from elsewhere in the world of ball clays from the United States, Germany, Czech Republic, Thailand, Indonesia, Argentina and China. The evaluation of deposits will be covered along with a description of the main types of ball clay for ceramics with details of the mining, processing and blending techniques which are necessary to ensure long term consistency of products. A brief description in given of the ceramic properties of some Brazilian ball clays. The location of some ball clay deposits is shown in Fig. 1.

The strength of the company's competitiveness is needed because the current industrial development is very rapid. It is necessary to maintain the quality and quantity of the products produced according to company standards. One of the companies that must maintain the quality and quantity is PT. XYZ is a clay tile company. The classification of products used by this company to maintain good quality is three classes: good tile, white stone tile, and cracked tile. However, quality control based on classification still uses the traditional way by relying on sight. It can increase errors and slow down the process. It can be overcome with artificial visual detectors. It is a result of the rapid development of automation. So to detect defects, this research can use image preprocessing, supervised learning algorithms, and measurement methods. Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used in this study to perform classification, while feature extraction on clay tiles used the Local Binary Pattern (LBP) method. The algorithm is made using python, while for image retrieval, raspberry pi is used. The linear kernel on the SVM algorithm is used in this study. The conclusion in this study obtained 86.95% is the highest accuracy with a linear kernel. It takes 10.625 seconds to classify.

Recently, several studies have been conducted to investigate the behavior of polymer based composites reinforced with clay particles, which can remarkably improve the properties of the polymers. Studies using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are necessary to understand the role of clay minerals/particles in the reinforcing effect in the polymer based materials. TEM sample preparation of polymer/clay nanocomposites using conventional techniques has been difficult and tedious. Nevertheless, the focused ion beam (FIB) technique for preparing metal and ceramic samples provides another method for preparing polymer nanocomposite samples. This paper presents a new approach for preparing TEM specimens of the polymer nanocomposites using the FIB technique.Two types of epoxy (Dow Chemical Company, DER 331) nanocomposite samples were investigated: one containing 7.5 wt.% organomontmorillonite clay (Southern Clay Products Inc., Cloisite 30B) and the other (carbon fiber reinforced plastics; CFRP) containing carbon fibers (Hexel Fibers, AS4) in addition to 5 wt. % clay. Details of preparing the epoxy based clay nanocomposites will be published elsewhere. Procedures for preparing TEM thin sections using FIB were based on techniques developed by Ramirez de Arellano et al.

In the developed countries of the world, the problem of quality improvement occupies a leading place in ensuring the competitiveness of products and services, building new relationships between consumers and producers, and meeting material needs, social interests, and spiritual demands, especially in production and industrial engineering. With the entry of Kazakhstan enterprises into international markets and the opening of the Kazakh market for the goods of foreign firms, the problem of product quality has become a priority for domestic producers. Currently, there are problems in the implementation of the quality management system in Kazakhstan. Accordingly, the article discusses the problems of implementing a quality management system in the example of a company producing bentonite clay in Kazakhstan. The methods of observation, analysis, and synthesis, as well as the technique of interview with the head of the quality group, were used for the research. As a result of the research, the management system introduced in this enterprise was discussed, and the problems observed during the system implementation were presented, as well as recommendations for the company.

The production of taphole clays in the conditions of JSC «DINUR» has passed a long and problematic way during 25 years, many significant milestones have been overcome. The continuous improvement of formulas and production technology allowed the company to become the main Russian manufacturer of this type of products and to move from the concept of a unified composition to an individual approach, depending on the specific operation conditions of a particular blast furnace. Ill. 4. Tab. 1.

Nowadays, in Colombia, specifically in the north-eastern, in Santander region, the process of mixing the ceramic paste used to manufacture masonry products for construction (H- 10 bricks, tiles, roof tiles, etc.) is done manually. For this reason, approximately 70% of the companies do not possess the technological tools which facilitate the prediction of the behavior of the raw material (clay). The main objective of this research is to formulate mixtures at a laboratory-level in order to verify the physical properties of ceramic raw materials used by a company which was takenas a sample. The research development was carried out through the execution of tests and laboratory analysis, taking into account the formulation of mixtures with the help of Statgraphics Centurion XV software in order to obtain combinations of raw materials according to the requirements of the current standard techniques. The results demonstrate the importance of using statistical programs for the improvement of systems and processes, predicting the behavior of raw materials as well as conducting pilot tests, taking into account the laboratory analyses in the ceramic industry. Conclusions: The results show that the mixture combinations obtained have the necessary parameters to meet the current standards such as resistance and absorption, which will optimize the economic and physical resources of the company, as well as the quality of the final product.

The effectiveness of the use of the organoclay of the Cloisite 30B brand of the Southern Clay Products company (USA), which is a Na+-montmorillonit, modified by methylalkyldi (2-hydroxyethyl) ammoniumchloride, and of the organoclay of the Katamin AB, produced by the Federal State Unitary Enterprise CNIIgeolnerud (Russia), modified by alkylbenzyldimethylammoniumchloride on the properties of vulcanized dimethylphenylvinylsiloxane rubber of the brand SKTFV-803 was studied. It was established that the adding of organoclay in the amount of 5 parts by weight in siloxane rubber increased heat resistance, slightly reduced the swelling index in toluene, and, most importantly, was not impair the frost resistance of obtained siloxane HYPERLINK "https://www.multitran.ru/c/m.exe?t=598817_1_2&s1=%F0%E5%E7%E8%ED%E0" vulcanizates.

One of the most common types of ecotoxicants is oil products - unidentified group of oil hydrocarbons and products of its processing. In this regard, the development of technology for obtaining new highly efficient and inexpensive sorbents for wastewater treatment from oil products (including industrial waste) is an urgent problem. In this paper, the technology of wastewater treatment includes the use of composite sorbents based on tails-waste of Uchalinsky (UW) and Buribaevsky (BW) mining and processing plants (MPP), mica quartzite (MQ) of the Baymak field and montmorillonite clay (MC) and sodium humates (SH) obtained from waste of Tulgan brown coal. Using these sorbents, we investigated the efficiency of these sorbents in model wastewater treatment contaminated with oil from the Vozeyskoye oilfield of LLC Usinsk Neftegaz and real wastewater of “Bashneft” Ufa Oil Company. It is shown that the efficiency of treatment and the rate of adsorption of model wastewater containing oil products (8-50 mg/dm3) increases in a number of sorbents MQ < BAU < BW (UW) + MC < BW (UW) + MC+SH (BAU is a comparison sorbent - activated carbon) and reaches a maximum for MPP coated with SH. For real wastewater containing oil products of Ufa refinery (3-625 mg/l) adsorption activity increases in the number of MQ < MQ + MC < BW + MC < UW + MC. Thus, the most effective sorbents for real and model wastewater containing oil and oil products are sorbents based on waste from Uchalinsky MPP in the composition of MH (degree of purification 96.1 %), as well as sorbent: waste UW (BW) + MC modified SH (98.1 and 98.2 %, respectively).

The experimental process was proposed in order to establish the viability of substituting part of the mineral fraction used at present (clayey material) by residues of combustion processes (ashes) of coal in thermoelectric, as an element to reduce the carbon footprint of the process of production of ceramic products, without altering the quality, properties and functionality of the final product. The study focuses on the specific case of a brick-making company in the metropolitan area of Cúcuta, and on the substitution of 10% of the raw material (clay) for ashes from the thermoelectric plant, for the production of ceramic blocks. The analyses carried out establish an energy saving derived from the use of 10% fly ash equivalent to 997.12Kg of Norte de Santander coal per burn. The results determine that, in the case of brick production, the annual reduction of emissions associated with the production process, with the use of ashes from the thermoelectric, would be 849.48 tons of CO2. Thus, the carbon footprint is reduced by 16.39kgCO2equiv/t finished product, which represents a decrease of 5.99% of the carbon footprint compared to the conventional process.

The problems of processing iron ore tailings of wet concentration plants and wastes with high content of iron, contaminated by oil products are actual from both points of view of ecology and economy. One of the reasons restraining solving the problem is absence of technologies ensuring to involve such wastes into industrial turnover. In the process` of the research, composition and opening degree of ore and non-metallic minerals of concentration slime tailing of Magnitogorsk steel-works (MMK) were studied and technology of their concentration was elaborated. Taking into consideration the contamination of initial slime tailings of MMK, it was proposed to accomplish their preliminary de-sliming to remove vegetable remains and clay slimes by disintegration in a screw-toothed crusher and washing in a spiral classifier. Results of wet magnetic separation (WMS) of the initial slime tailings of MMK, made at JSC “Uralmekhanobr” presented, the slimes having natural coarseness of –2.0+0.0 mm. It was established that WMS at the magnetic field intensity of 1500 Oe ensures effective removal of magnetite, aggregates magnetite-hematite-goetite into magnetic product. Iron content in the magnetite concentrate was varying from 61.5 to 62.6%. For processing of slime tailings of MMK, magnetic separation was proposed by high-gradient magnetic separator with permanent magnets, created specially for these purposes by “ERGA” company. To increase iron extraction degree, it was proposed to apply gravitation methods of concentration of nonmagnetic product, obtained at high-gradient WMS. It enabled to increase iron content in the final magnetite-hematite concentrate up to 59%. A technological diagram of oiled slimes processing presented. Tests with oiled slimes of bottom deposits of metallurgical production under pilot-industrial conditions of MMK exhibited a possibility to obtain additional iron concentrate with total iron content of 62.47% while oil content in it was less 0.3%.

The Canadian repository concept for the permanent disposal of used nuclear fuel is to seal it in Cu-coated steel containers and dispose of it in a deep geological repository (DGR) surrounded by compacted bentonite clay. The Cu coating will be directly bonded on the steel vessel and lid using electro-deposition (ED-Cu), with the final container closure weld sealed with a cold-sprayed Cu deposit (CS-Cu). To assess the durability of such a container, long-term corrosion experiments have been performed on CS-Cu and ED-Cu specimens, and compared with those performed on wrought Cu specimens provided by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB-Cu). Experiments were conducted in 3 M NaCl solutions containing traces of sulfide (< 10- 6 M) for exposure periods of ≥150 days. These conditions reflect a generic groundwater that may influence container corrosion in a Canadian DGR Since conditions in a DGR will evolve from initially oxic to eventually anoxic, experiments were conducted under three sets of redox conditions: (i) aerated (oxic) conditions; (ii) Ar-purged (oxic to anoxic transition conditions (with a dissolved [O2] ~ 10- 6 M)); and (iii) anaerobic chamber (anoxic) conditions ([O2] < 1.3 × 10- 9 M). The exposure process was followed using open circuit (i.e., corrosion) potential and polarization resistance (RP) measurements. Specimens were analyzed before and after corrosion using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy on surfaces and focused ion beam cut cross sections, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron/Auger spectroscopy. In all environments, all three types of specimens (ED-Cu, CS-Cu, SKB-Cu) showed similar behaviour. Under anoxic conditions, minor corrosion, indicated by large RP values, leading to the deposition of traces of chalcocite (Cu2S) (identified by Raman spectroscopy) and observed by SEM, indicated that corrosion could be attributed to reaction with the trace amounts of sulfide present in NaCl. In Ar-purged solutions, the RP values were approximately one order of magnitude lower (i.e., the corrosion rate was one order of magnitude higher) than those measured under anoxic conditions, and significant corrosion damage was observed in SEM micrographs. Both Cu2O and Cu2S were detected by Raman spectroscopy. The detection of oxidized sulfur species (SO3 2 - and SO4 2 -) on the corroded surface by XPS/Auger confirmed that even trace amounts of dissolved O2 led to sulfide oxidation and the possible formation of potentially more corrosive species such as thiosulfate (S2O3 2 -). Under aerated conditions, extensive corrosion occurred leading to the formation of green CuII products (atacamite (Cu2(OH)3Cl)) with no detectable Cu2S formation. Within the DGR, corrosion of Cu under anoxic conditions will be limited by the available supply of sulfide, which may be produced remotely at the host rock/clay interface and/or in the porewater within the rock fractures. In the presence of even trace of dissolved O2, the corrosion process is significantly accelerated with the formation of potentially aggressive oxidized sulfur species. Under aerated conditions, extensive corrosion due to reaction with O2 leads to the deposition of CuII deposits. On the time scale of these experiments with only trace of sulfide present, no detectable conversion of copper oxide to Cu2S was observed. Keywords: Copper; Sulfide; Corrosion; Nuclear waste disposal

In the 1960s and 1970s, the largest U.S. chemical firm, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, established an international presence in synthetic fibers by building plants to make nylon, polyester, and acrylic in Latin America and Europe. DuPont managers also looked to the Middle East, specifically to Iran, which was fast industrializing under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The Shah's pro-Western stance and his country's rich oil fields made Iran appealing to a petrochemical giant like DuPont, which used petroleum feed stocks to make fibers and other products. In the 1970s, DuPont partnered with the Behshahr Industrial Group, a conglomerate run by the Ledjavardi clan, one of Iran's leading families, to build a high-tech fiber facility that would help modernize the Iranian textile industry. The story of this short-lived joint venture, a victim of the Islamic Revolution, demonstrates the challenges to multinationals operating in imperial Iran, and shows how the daily experience of dealing with cultural differences often masked larger political and economic troubles.

Inventory of raw materials is the most important thing to produce the product. Inventory control of the raw materials quantityalso refers to the production process at the factory. PT Semen Padang used raw materials including cement manufacture clay, limestone, silica, gypsum, pozzolan and sand iron or copper slag. Among the raw materials, the most used is pozzolan. This research will be carried out data processing for inventory control using the EOQ (Economic Order Quantity) and POQ (Periodic Order Quantity) to compare with inventory control has been implemented by the company. The data collected for this study include data processing is the use of historical data pozzolan material per period in 2012 and 2013, the cost of raw materials ordering pozzolan, pozzolan storage costs of raw materials and lead time, acceptance of pozzolan from suppliers to storage. Data processing is performed to determine the inventory control of raw materials sand pozzolan in 2014. The results and conclusions obtained are forecasting the use of pozzolan in 2014 is 1.135.355,77 tons it means will be more than in previous years and the inventory control with POQ (Periodic Order Quantity) produces the minimum inventory costs with price Rp 1.775.179.959,61.Keywords: forecasting, inventory, EOQ, POQAbstrakPersediaan bahan baku merupakan elemen terpenting dalam produksi yang dilakukan oleh perusahaan untuk menghasilkan produk. Pengendalian persediaan terhadap kuantitas bahan baku yang dilakukan gudang juga merujuk ke proses produksi yang dilakukan oleh pabrik. Pabrik-pabrik di PT Semen Padang tersebut menggunakan bahan baku pembuatan semen diantaranya tanah liat (clay), batu kapur, batu silika, gypsum, pozzolan dan pasir besi atau copper slag. Diantara bahan baku tersebut, pemakaian terbanyak adalah pemakaian pozzolan. Pada penelitian ini akan dilakukan pengolahan data untuk pengendalian persediaan dengan menggunakan metode EOQ (Economic Order Quantity) dan POQ (Periodic Order Quantity) untuk membandingkan dengan pengendalian persediaan yang telah diterapkan oleh perusahaan. Data yang dikumpulkan untuk pengolahan data penelitian ini diantaranya yaitu data historis pemakaian bahan baku pozzolan per periode pada tahun 2012 dan 2013, biaya pemesanan bahan baku pozzolan, biaya penyimpanan bahan baku pozzolan dan waktu tenggang (lead time) penerimaan pozzolan dari pemasok ke gudang. Pengolahan data yang dilakukan adalah untuk menentukan pengendalian persediaan bahan baku pasir pozzolan di tahun 2014. Hasil dan kesimpulan yang diperoleh adalah peramalan pemakaian pozzolan di tahun 2014 akan lebih banyak dibanding tahun-tahun sebelumnya yaitu dengan total pemakaian sebanyak 1.135.355,77 ton dan pengendalian persediaan dengan metode POQ (PeriodicOrderQuantity) menghasilkan biaya persediaan yang lebih minimum yaitu sebesar Rp 1.775.179.959,61.Kata kunci: peramalan, persediaan, EOQ, POQ

The growing interest of the Indonesian people in the cultivation of LAT (Freshwater Lobster) is one of the effects of government regulation no. 56/ Permen-KP/2016. Since the occurrence of the Covid-19 pandemic with regional restrictions, one of the LAT cultivation industries of the Red Claw (Cherax Quadricarinatus) type in the Sidoarjo area, East Java, has experienced problems in supplying lobster to consumers in various regions outside cities in Indonesia. The delay in the supply of lobster results in delays in the supply of raw materials for consumers, the majority of whom are restaurant or restaurant activists. The success of supply chain management is determined by the number of costs that can be minimized, short time, and quality that is maintained, as well as the level of risk minimization (supply chain risk). Based on the problems that occur, risk identification will be carried out in each process to see its effect on cost, time, and quality. Then proceed with determining the weight based on the level of resistance (severity), possible resistance (occurrence), and the cause of the detected obstacle (detection). The last step is to calculate the RPN (Risk Priority Number) value obtained from the severity results. From the results of the analysis of risk identification and calculation of RPN with the FMEA approach, the highest risk weight with an RPN value of 105 was obtained due to the risk factor for the increase in distribution costs of cultivation products due to the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Thus, the company should consider reorganizing its business strategy to focus on areas that are close to the point of supply of freshwater crayfish.

Abstract The company Sokolovská uhelná, was the largest producer of city gas in the Czech Republic. After its substitution by natural gas the gasification technology became the basis of the production of electricity in the combine cycle power plant with total output 400 MW. For the possibility of gasification of liquid by- -products forming during the coal gasification a entrained-flow gasifier capable to process also alternative liquid fuels has been in installed. The concentrated waste gas with these sulphur compounds is conducted to the desulphurisation where the highly desired, pure, 96 % H2SO4 is produced. Briquettable brown coal is crushed, milled and dried and then it is passed into briquetting presses where briquettes, used mainly as a fuel in households, are pressed without binder in the punch under the pressure of 175 MPa. Fine brown coal dust (multidust) is commercially used for heat production in pulverized-coal burners. It forms not only during coal drying after separation on electrostatic separators, but it is also acquired by milling of dried coal in a vibratory bar mill. Slag from boilers of classical power plant, cinder form generators and ashes deposited at the dump are dehydrated and they are used as a quality bedding material during construction of communications in the mines of SUAS. Fly ash is used in building industry for partial substitution of cement in concrete. Flue gases after separation of fly ash are desulphurized by wet limestone method, where the main product is gypsum used, among others, in the building industry. Expanded clays from overburdens of coal seams, that are raw material for the production of “Liapor” artificial aggregate, are used heavily. This artificial aggregate is characterized by outstanding thermal and acoustic insulating properties.

Glencore Nikkelverk produces nickel, copper and cobalt with high purity. This demands several leaching and filtration steps removing contaminants to achieve a high-quality metal via electrolysis. In one of the process steps iron is oxidized to its trivalent state and forms a slurry precipitate, which contains different iron components described as FexOy(OH)z. The slurry is very fine-grained, corrosive and has a miry consistency resembling muddy clay. Filter presses with up to 90 frames separate the process solution from the iron slurry, which undergoes a washing cycle. Due to the slurry’s fine-grained nature, this washing cycle is challenging with uneven distribution of the washing water and results in loss of valuable dissolved Nickel chloride (NiCl2) which is left in the slurry. The slurry discharges of the filter presses are stored in Nikkelverk’s underground landfills and leads to a yearly loss of approximately 20 million Norwegian kroner. In 2017, the R&D department at Nikkelverk took spear samples for over a period of nine month to map the Nickel content in the material prone to be discharged to the underground landfill. The results showed that the Nickel lost was approximately40% higher than reported from the samples taken directly from a frame by the operators. In 2018, a mapping of several press frames by handheld X-ray analysis showed that the Nickel content, depending on the position of the sample taken in a frame, varies. Since the physique of the operators determines where the sample is prone to be taken, this will add to the variation in the analytical result of Nickel lost. It can be assumed that this variation completely overshadows the process variation resulting in lost Nickel. In summary, the current sampling protocol gives a high variation and a wrong content of Ni in the slurry. Nikkelverk’s commitment to its business system and thereby involvement of resources on any level of the company has resulted in formations of process teams which shall approach such issues and find solutions fit-for-purpose. Therefore, a process team was initiated to develop an automatic sampler in-house for the iron slurry. Their goal was to achieve samples that are more representative as the ones retrieved by today’s protocol. There are six filter presses where slurry is separated from the filtrate. Each filter press releases its slurry on a conveyor belt, which transports the slurry to a collecting chute. The idea is to mount an automatic sample in the collecting chute prior to the slurry compiled for transport to the underground landfill. The article will describe in detail the pre-studies of the problem, the development of the automatic sampler for the collecting chute and discuss its conformity regarding the theory of sampling.

Summary The Wafra field is located in the partitioned neutral zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The field produces oil from the Ratawi oolite reservoir, which has been under production since 1956. Barriers to fluid movement have severely restricted aquifer support to the overlying carbonate grainstone reservoir, leading to production-induced pressure depletion and low recovery rates. Creative integration of three-dimensional seismic aspects, well log stratigraphy, and engineering analysis revealed an unexploited reservoir extension that is more open to aquifer pressure support. Wells drilled along this extension are expected to yield higher initial production rates and longer sustained production. The model was used to drill two successful step-out wells that have increased field production by over 12,000 BOPD. Eight of ten additional wells have now been drilled as a follow-up to this success. This paper reviews the case history with a focus on the multidisciplinary integration that led to opportunity identification and exploitation. Introduction The Wafra field, jointly operated by Saudi Arabian Texaco and the Kuwait Oil Company, is located in the partitioned neutral zone (PNZ) between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia (Fig. 1). The field has produced from the Lower Cretaceous Ratawi reservoir since 1956. Liquid withdrawal over the years has depleted reservoir pressures in some parts of the field, leading to a decline in production. Based on prior reservoir characterization and simulation studies in 1995,1 a peripheral water injection and an extension development program have been undertaken in order to arrest the decline and increase the production by over 40,000 BOPD.2 In 1996, a 104 sq mile three-dimensional (3D) seismic survey was acquired to help design and implement these programs. Structural and Stratigraphic Framework The Wafra field is a large anticline approximately 6 by 10 miles in dimension (Fig. 2). The field is composed of a main NW-SE trending structural feature called the Main area, and a lower amplitude extension area east of the Main area called East Wafra. The Ratawi oolite reservoir is found at a depth of 6,135 ft subsea at the structural crest and had an original oil-water contact at about 6,520 ft subsea. Most of the structuring occurred in Middle Cretaceous time as sediment draped over deep-seated horst blocks. Oil migration and accumulation are thought to have occurred primarily in Early Eocene time. The Ratawi formation consists of a marine transgressive sequence of carbonate rocks deposited during Early Cretaceous time. The formation is composed of three distinct intervals: the lower-most Ratawi oolite reservoir, and the overlying Ratawi Limestone and Ratawi Shale cap rocks (Fig. 3). The Ratawi oolite reservoir was formed by a prograding carbonate sand shoaling sequence deposited on a low-angle carbonate ramp or detached platform. The commercially productive reservoir interval is composed primarily of porous grainstones and packstones. Less porous packstone, mudstone, and wackestone facies resulted from a more-restricted lagoonal environment in the central part of the field, and deeper marine shelf facies on the platform boundaries. Stratigraphic analysis of well log data provides an understanding of the depositional framework and serves as a basis for modeling facies distribution within the reservoir. Fig. 4a is a well log cross section traversing the Main area and East Wafra along the path A-B in Fig. 2. The gamma ray (GR) log curves are flattened on the base of the Ratawi limestone (cap rock) and span the interval of the Ratawi oolite reservoir. The GR curves indicate a remarkable character similarity from well to well that is almost exclusively related to the presence of uranium minerals.1 This determination is supported by x-ray analysis of core data that found an absence of clay. Additional evidence is found in comparisons of the GR (uranium, potassium and thorium) with the computed GR (potassium and thorium) from spectrometry gamma ray logs. The computed GR data show a largely diminished log character, implying that the GR log character is largely a function of uranium content. Hence, the correlative nature of the GR curves indicates that the uranium was present at the time of deposition—probably due to regional-scale climatic or environmental influences such as atmospheric fall-out from volcanic activity. This explains the consistent levels of uranium, independent of lithology and porosity, and allows detailed chronostratigraphic correlations to be made. Fig. 4b is an east-west stratigraphic cross section through the reservoir along the same path as in Fig. 4a, showing porosity logs with GR depositional time lines superimposed. The thick solid lines mark lithostratigraphic boundaries between an interval consisting primarily of porous grainstone, which for purposes of this paper will be referred to as the "upper reservoir," a tight interval of predominantly mudstone and packstone, referred to as the "Basal barrier," and a porous grainstone interval called the "lower reservoir." Almost all of the Ratawi oil production is from the upper reservoir grainstones. The chronostratigraphic facies heterogeneity evident in Fig. 4b owes its origin to a transgressive sequence of prograding grain shoals deposited in relatively shallow water.3 During the early stages of transgression, as the shoals prograded over the Wafra paleo-high, muds and finer grain carbonates were deposited in intershoal lagoons. As the sea level rose, carbonate sediment productivity and accumulation surpassed the rise in sea level, resulting in an overall shallowing with time. Evidence of this can be seen in the general coarsening upward character of the porosity logs. With progressively shallower water depths and associated higher depositional energy, the grain shoals became spatially more extensive while the lagoonal areas retreated, ending in fairly expansive grain shoals in the later stages of reservoir development. At the end of Ratawi oolite time, a rapid increase in relative sea level drowned the shoaling sequence, and deposited the deeper marine Ratawi limestone and shale members.

In the present investigation, the physical, mechanical, and chemical characterization of the raw material used in two companies dedicated to the manufacture of solid bricks in the region of Cesar, Colombia, was carried out. Initially, the hydrometric test was performed on five clay samples from different quarries with which the percentages of sand, silt, and clays were determined. These percentages were placed in the Winkler diagram to identify the types of existing clays according to their texture and the types of products that can be manufactured. Subsequently, the chemical characterization was carried out through the X-ray diffraction and fluorescence tests, to determine the phases and elements present in two of the optimal samples for the manufacture of the bricks that may arise during the cooking process. The results of the test of mechanical resistance to compression in solid brick units showed that the clays currently used by the company do not meet the minimum requirements for the production of solid clay bricks, according to the parameters of the Colombian technical standard NTC 4205-09. With this research, we expect to predict the behavior of the raw material in the stages of the production process, which will obviously improve the environmental and economic resources of the companies. The result of the characterization of the raw material will allow us to predict the structural behavior and to carry out indispensable design and reinforcement models in building and attention to the community.

In 2019, BYK Additives (Widnes, UK; www.byk.com) marked the 55th anniversary of the discovery by Dr Barbara Zsusanna (Susanna) Neumann of the extraordinary product known as Laponite®. The range of Laponite® products developed in the UK during the early 1960s is one of the first examples of truly nanodimensional materials manufactured on an industrial scale, at a time when the field of nanotechnology was only being hinted at (Feynman, 1959). These hectorite-like synthetic nanoclays with very unusual properties have been an enduring commercial success for the UK company that first patented and introduced them to the market, Laporte Industries, which is now a part of the BYK company. The Laponite® brand has proved tremendously popular with academic and industrial scientists worldwide, being cited in >3000 patents and >2500 published academic articles.

Sugarcane is one of the strategic cash crops in Sudan for production of sugar and other products for local consumption and export. The objective of this research study was to investigate and calculate the amounts of energy used in sugarcane production, to evaluate the energy use efficiency at Kenana Sugarcane Company. Data were collected from this company and literature to compute the required energy parameters. The results indicated that total energy input was 85496.6 MJha-1 and total energy output was 112812 MJha-1 and urea fertilizer energy used in sugarcane production systems had the highest share with 37.0 percent, followed by electricity for irrigation pumps, diesel fuel and seed cuttings used, as 17.1, 15.5 and 13.4 percent energy respectively. The energy use efficiency, energy productivity, specific energy, renewable energy and non-renewable energy of sugarcane production were 1.31, 1.10 KgMJ-1, 0.91 MJkg-1, 19989.2 MJha-1, 65507.4 MJha-1 and 26980 MJha-1 respectively. The energy use efficiency of sugarcane production shows value higher than one, so the system earned energy for sugarcane production in Kenana-Sudan.

Abstract A well-known series of miniature figures produced in India from unfired clay, appropriately clothed and in many instances represented carrying out their respective secular or ritual duties, enjoyed a period of particular popularity on the world stage in the nineteenth century when they were appropriated as illustrative devices in museum displays and international exhibitions. Over the previous half-century or more they had emerged as products of a dynamic industry that responded to changes in taste as well as religious and artistic practice within Indian society, before being taken up by the West to serve new colonial imperatives. There they received perhaps their most enthusiastic reception at the India Museum, established in the headquarters of the East India Company in London in the early 1800s, and surviving beyond the suppression of the Company itself until they were dispersed to a number of other institutions in 1879. From an early appearance at the Great Exhibition in 1851, the figures also became a regular feature of the international exhibitions of the latter part of the century. Initially they celebrated the traditional crafts and practices of India but gradually were recruited to communicate other messages of Western industrial dominance and perceived artistic and industrial superiority. Although comparatively few of these figures survive intact in Western collections, the history of their considerable impact on the European stage can be enlarged upon with the aid of the documentary record.

Quarry dust is a by-product of granite quarrying activities. Granite fragments, that are normally obtained from blasting granite rocks in a particular quarry, are subjected to a number of machineries of decreasing crushing aperture sizes and each attendant sieving to obtain granite aggregates of the desired size, normally 20 mm, 10 mm, etc. These are to be used in the construction of buildings as coarse aggregates in concrete mixes, as well as in the laying of tarred roads. The finest fraction, nominally below 7 mm or 5 mm in size depending on the practice of the quarrying company, is normally dumped on site. It is considered to be a waste that needs to be disposed of. Apart from attending to the environmental issue, the reuse of such waste material in the development of new products would be an attractive commercial proposition. In this work, granite quarry dust was incorporated into a clay-based ceramic body to replace the use of feldspar (an expensive component) as the fluxing agent in such triaxial clay whiteware compositions. A fluxing agent is the component in a ceramic body composition that melts first and functions as the component that binds together all the other solid particles into a rigid body. Initially, the quarry dust was chemically and mineralogically characterized before mixing with clay at a fixed 45:55 weight ratio. The mixtures were then pressed and fired at various temperatures before testing the properties of the fired products. A comparison was made with a local feldspathic source from Gua Musang to ascertain the feasibility of such replacement to produce high quality ceramic bodies. It was found that mineralogically the granite quarry dust consists of K-feldspar (or orthoclase) as compared to Na-feldspar (or albite) found in the Gua Musang feldspar. This led to melting at a lower temperature of the former but exhibited a much more viscous melt. At the same time, the higher iron content in the granite quarry dust led to a much darker colourisation of the body upon firing. In conclusion, the granite quarry dust has been found to be successful in lowering the maturing temperature of ceramic bodies compared to the Gua Musang feldspar beside conferring stability of the low porosity property over a wider firing temperature.

ABSTRACTToday the company seeks alternative natural medicine that are compatible with the body, which does not produce side effects and hang time are easily accessible and cost of those who currently have. The concern of researchers and specialists in the development of new materials is to seek, to experiment and create products that can be useful and compatible with human beings so as to obtain a curative effect without a side effect originates.The development of pharmacologically active materials has increased in recent years. People lack access to most drugs and is therefore a need for more rapid and less expensive than current, which can be applied to cellular systems in vitro, in order to evaluate the biocompatibility of new materials. The current study seeks to experiment in a new line of research that helps health care and have a better quality of life.The excipients in the drug are auxiliary substances that help the active ingredient is the one with the therapeutic action, can be formulated in an effective and pleasant for the patient. It is one or more substances that are incorporated into the product to facilitate its preparation, maintenance or administration. We therefore tested clay known as bentonite to serve as a vehicle for transport of an active substance (ursolic acid) [1] and some scientific studies have shown that it possesses anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal and highly cytotoxic capacity. Both materials were mixed to generate a new biomaterial that has anti-inflammatory activity. Evaluation of this model was under the inhibition of edema produced by 13-acetate-12-ortho-tetradecanoylphorbol (TPA) in mouse ear.

Abstract. CV Omah Keramik is one of the SMEs engaged in the clay raw material processing sector, this company produces several types of products including ashtrays, jars, flower vases, flower pots, decorative plates, glass mugs. The problems that occur in CV. Omah Keramik, namely the decline in sales since the pandemic in 2019 which has affected the company's income, so a strategy is needed to deal with the post-pandemic situation and the problems that are currently happening. The purpose of this research is to identify the company's potential as well as design and develop marketing strategies to increase sales of the products offered. The research method is using SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and also the Business Model Canvas (BMC). The results showed that the SWOT analysis that had been carried out by CV. Omah Keramik is in quadrant I based on the results of the IFE (internal factor evaluation) matrix, the result is 2.83 and the EFE (external factor evaluation) is 2.74, which means that it requires an aggressive strategy from all existing media to carry out marketing. Then the results of identification of internal and external factors are in Cell V which requires CV. Omah Keramik maintains and maintains business through product development and market penetration through the use of various media, both online and in person. So it can be concluded that CV. Omah Keramik has the potential to implement marketing strategies through identification results with SWOT Analysis and also BMC, both of which have links to help CV. Omah Keramik implements the right marketing strategy. Keywords: Marketing Strategy, SWOT Analysis, Business Model Canvas. Abstrak. CV Omah Keramik merupakan salah satu UMKM yang bergerak dalam sektor pengolahan bahan baku tanah liat, perusahaan ini memproduksi beberapa jenis produk diantaranya asbak, guci, vas bunga, pot bunga, piring hias, gelas mug. Permasalahan yang terjadi di CV. Omah Keramik yaitu menurunnya penjualan semenjak adanya pandemi ditahun 2019 yang berpengaruh pada pendapatan perusahaan, sehingga dibutuhkan strategi untuk menghadapi situasi pasca pandemi dan permasalahan yang sedang terjadi saat ini. Tujuan penelitian ini yaitu untuk mengidentifikasi potensi perusahaan serta merancang dan mengembangkan strategi pemasaran untuk meningkatkan penjualan produk yang ditawarkan. Metode penelitian yaitu menggunakan Analisis SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) dan juga Business Model Canvas (BMC). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa analisis SWOT yang telah dilakukan CV. Omah Keramik berada di kuadran I berdasarkan hasil dari matriks IFE (internal factor evaluation) didapat hasil yaitu 2,83 dan EFE (eksternal factor evaluation) didapat hasil yaitu 2,74 yang berarti membutuhkan strategi agresif dari segala media yang ada untuk melakukan pemasaran. Kemudian hasil identifikasi faktor internal dan eksternal berada pada Sel V yang mengharuskan CV. Omah Keramik menjaga dan mempertahankan usaha melalui pengembangan produk dan penetrasi pasar melalui pemanfaatan berbagai media baik online maupun langsung. Sehingga dapat disimpulkan CV. Omah Keramik memiliki potensi untuk penerapan strategi pemasaran melalui hasil identifikasi dengan Analisis SWOT dan juga BMC, yang keduanya memiliki keterkaitan untuk membantu CV. Omah Keramik menerapkan strategi pemasaran yang tepat. Kata Kunci: Strategi Pemasaran, Analisis SWOT, Bisnis Model Kanvas.

Population expansion, especially in metropolitan areas, has led to an increase in the production of urban solid waste (USW) by domestic and commercial activity in urban centres. Reducing the production of these wastes is an extremely difficult task. However, the reduction processes, themselves, have the potential to produce a number of useful residues. This study focuses on the residues of incinerated USW, which produces ashes of varying compositions. This study investigates a mixture of two ashes, one resulting from the incineration of USW from LIPOR II (Intermunicipal Waste Management Service of Porto Region) and another from ValorSul (Valorisation and Treatment of Solid Waste of Lisbon and West Regions), both processed by EcoInCer (Ecological Innovations Ceramics company). Ashes from several samples of USW incorporating clays were tested to identify physical and mechanical characterisations, with a view to identifying useful ecological ceramic materials which could be used by the ceramics industry. Ceramic samples with 0%, 10% and 20% of ashes were incorporated in a clay matrix composed of 5% kaolin and 95% red clay, and submitted to leaching alterability in Soxhlet Extractor. The obtained results demonstrate the ways in which the ash percentage and the firing temperature can be important in the alterability of a ceramic material. Keywords: Ceramic materials, Leaching, Urban solid waste

This artcle ams to determne the producere for mplementng clams handlng at PT.Prudental Prudental Lfe Assurance Bnja. Ths research s a descrptve research wth a qualitative approach. Data collecton technques used are ntervews wth nsurance agents PT Prudental Lfe Assurance Bnja and lterature study. Based on the results of research and dscusson, conclusons have been drawn. An nsurance clam s a clam from the nsured party n connecton wth a contract agreement between the nsurance and the nsured party, where each party bnds tself to guarantee the payment of compensaton by the nsurer f the nsurance premum payment has been made by the nsured party, when a dsaster s suffered by the nsured party. As for the stages of the clam beng submtted, t must be completed wth all the requred complementary requrements and documents. f the requrements and documents are not complete, there wll be a rejecton from the nsurance company.

Laboratory analyzes showed that the wood chips had a higher bulk density and a significantly lower ash content than wood pellets produced by the company technological process company Pelletia-cz. using an annular granulator with a pellet outlet temperature of 80-90 ° C. The water content and calorific value of the wood chips were slightly lower than that of the wood pellets. The content of volatile combustibles and the elemental composition of the two compared energy raw materials did not differ significantly. On the contrary, significant differences were found in herbal pellets (from winter wheat straw, winter rye straw and from whole triticale) produced by the identical process. It was shown that both the plant material and the addition of 3 wt. clay flours (binders) affect their parameters. For example, the proportion of fine material by the addition of a binder was significantly reduced in rye (to 0.17% by weight) and triticale pellets (to 0.04% by weight). On the other hand, the disadvantage of adding clay flour as a binder additive is the increase in the ash content, which reduces the calorific value of the pellets. The heat of combustion of pellets made of wood materials was about 2.5 MJ / kg higher than that of herbal pellets. Combustion of pellets from the three types of herbs monitored produces more emissions of chlorine and nitrogen oxides contaminants than wood samples relative to wood samples. The chlorine content in ashes from herbal pellets compared to ashes from wood materials was about 50 times higher. The nitrogen content in the compared raw materials was about 5–15 times higher for herbs.

PT. XYZ Discreet is a subsidiary of a State-Owned Enterprise (BUMN) in the manufacturing sector which was founded in 1983. PT. XYZ Discreet contributes to defense & security needs and various industrial products that help in other fields such as transportation and commercial explosives. Organizational culture is essential in determining the success of achieving company goals. Therefore, every company must know what type of culture they are running and what kind of culture is preferred at PT. XYZ Discreet has yet to assess the current and preferred corporate culture. As is well known, BUMN companies and subsidiaries have a new corporate culture, BUMN AKHLAK. Based on an assessment conducted by ACT Consulting, the value of implementing AKHLAK BUMN at PT. XYZ Discreet is not maximized or gets a C value (37.7). The purpose of this study is to provide recommendations for the preferred corporate culture based on survey results. The research methodology used is quantitative data by distributing questionnaires using the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) to employees of PT. XYZ Discrete. The survey results show that at PT. XYZ Discreet has a current culture Hierarchy culture, but the survey results also state that employees prefer Clan culture as their corporate culture. In other words, they support the culture with kinship, openness, loyalty, mutual trust, and agreement in every activity. From the results of research that has been done at PT. XYZ Discreet, this cultural transformation can be assisted by a bottom-up approach; leaders should have more understanding of employees, the transformation of leadership style, and forming the agent of change for corporate culture. These things aim to improve internal capabilities at PT. XYZ Discreet.

In 2019, Cbb (previously known as Cementos Bío Bío) was one of the main companies dedicated to the production of cement, concrete and lime. It had the largest logistics coverage in Chile and the largest installed production capacity with 3.5 million tons of cement per year and a dispatch of 1.3 million tons. It employed more than 2,800 collaborators, of which 1,344 provided services as contractor companies. Its annual sales for 2019 had been 263,182 million pesos (MM $), which allowed it to generate a net operating result of MM $ 13,104 and an EBITDA of MM $ 36,321. Cbb had managed to position itself in the industry thanks to its long history in the market and its innovative vision in creating high quality products by reusing waste such as slag and ash. Until 2010, the cement industry in Chile had had three major participants: Melón S.A., Cemento Polpaico S.A. and Cbb. All three companies operated under a traditional business model that ranged from the extraction of raw materials in their own mines to their dispatch. In 2011, Chile no longer only produced cement, but also imported it, as a result of low freight costs and lower cement prices due to overproduction in countries such as South Korea, China and Japan. These new conditions allowed other competitors to enter the industry with a different business model based on the import of cement for the production of concrete or the import of clinker (Substance obtained as a result of kiln calcination of limestone mixtures artificially prepared clays with the eventual addition of other materials) installing cement grinding plants. Clinker was one of the key raw materials that was in the middle of the cement production chain, which was obtained from the calcination of limestone. As clinker was imported, it was no longer necessary to have limestone mining deposits. At the end of 2019, the General Manager, who had arrived at the company on January 1, 2018, had to propose to the Board of Directors the focuses to work to continue with the implementation of the Transforma 2021 Strategic Plan. The plan included a set of six initiatives with those seeking to renew the company given the changes that were already beginning to be reflected in lower financial performance. Two years after evaluating the implementation and results obtained, the General Manager sought to define the work focuses for each of the initiatives. Could changes in the industry affect a consolidated and long-standing company like Cbb? Where should you direct your effort to achieve the goals and expected results in the plan? Would the Transform 2021 Plan succeed in taking Cbb where they expected?

Introduction Where children’s television once ruled supreme as a vehicle for sales of kids’ brands, the marketing of children’s toys now often hinges on having the right social media influencer, many of them children themselves (Verdon). As Forbes reported in 2021, the pandemic saw an increase in children spending more time online, many following their favourite influencers on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. The importance of tapping into partnering with the right influencer grew, as did sales in toys for children isolated at home. We detail, through a case study approach and visual narrative analysis of two Australian influencer siblings’ Instagram accounts, the nature of toy marketing to children in 2023. Findings point to the continued gendered nature of toys and the concurrent promotion of aspirational adult ‘toys’ (for example, cars, high-end cosmetics) and leisure pursuits that blur the line between what we considered to be children’s playthings and adult objects of desire. To Market, to Market Toys are a huge business worldwide. In 2021, the global toys market was projected to grow from $141.08 billion to $230.64 billion by 2028. During COVID-19, toy sales increased (Fortune Business Insights). The rise of the Internet alongside media and digital technologies has given toy marketers new opportunities to reach children directly, as well as producing new forms of digitally enabled play, with marketers potentially having access to children 24/7, way beyond the previous limits of children’s programming on television (Hains and Jennings). Children’s digital content has also extended to digital games alongside digital devices and Internet-connected toys. Children’s personal tablet ownership rose from less than 1 per cent in 2011 to 42 per cent in 2017 (Rideout), and continues to grow. Children’s value for brands and marketers has increased over time (Cunningham). The nexus between physical toys and the entertainment industry has grown stronger, first with the Disney company and then with the stand-out success of the Star Wars franchise (now owned by Disney) from the late 1970s (Hains and Jennings). The concept of transmedia storytelling and selling, with toys as the vehicle for children to play out the stories they saw on television, in comics, books, movies, and online, proved to be a lucrative one for the entertainment company franchises and the toy manufacturers (Bainbridge). All major toy brands now recognise the power of linking toy brands and entertaining transmedia children’s texts, including online content, with Disney, LEGO and Barbie being obvious examples. Gender and Toys: Boys and Girls Come Out to Play Alongside the growth of the children’s market, the gendering of children’s toys has also continued and increased, with concerns that traditional gender roles are still strongly promoted via children’s toys (Fine and Rush). Research shows that girls’ toys are socialising them for caring roles, shopping, and concern with beauty, while toys aimed at boys (including transportation and construction toys, action figures, and weapons) may promote physicality, aggression, construction, and action (Fine and Rush). As Blakemore and Center (632) suggested, then, if children learn from toy-play “by playing with strongly stereotyped toys, girls can be expected to learn that appearance and attractiveness are central to their worth, and that nurturance and domestic skills are important to be developed. Boys can be expected to learn that aggression, violence, and competition are fun, and that their toys are exciting and risky”. Recently there has been some pushback by consumers, and some toy brands have responded, with LEGO committing to less gendered toy marketing (Russell). YouTube: The World’s Most Popular Babysitter? One business executive has described YouTube as the most popular babysitter in the world (Capitalism.com). The use of children as influencers on YouTube to market toys through toy review videos is now a common practice (Feller and Burroughs; De Veirman et al.). These ‘reviews’ are not critical in the traditional sense of reviews in an institutional or legacy media context. Instead, the genre is a mash-up, which blurs the lines between three major genres: review, branded content, and entertainment (Jaakkola). Concerns have been raised about advertising disguised as entertainment for children, and calls have been made for nuanced regulatory approaches (Craig and Cunningham). The most popular toy review channels have millions of subscribers, and their hosts constitute some of YouTube’s top earners (Hunting). Toy review videos have become an important force in children’s media – in terms of economics, culture, and for brands (Hunting). Concurrently, surprise toys have risen as a popular type of toy, thanks in part to the popularity of the unboxing toy review genre (Nicoll and Nansen). Ryan’s World is probably the best-known in this genre, with conservative estimates putting 10-year-old Ryan Kanji’s family earnings at $25 million annually (Kang). Ryan’s World, formerly Ryan’s Toy Review, now has 10 YouTube channels and the star has his own show on Nic Junior as well as across other media, including books and video games (Capitalism.com). Marsh, through her case study of one child, showed the way children interact with online content, including unboxing videos, as ‘cyberflaneurs’. YouTube is the medium of choice for most children (now more so than television; Auxier et al.). However, Instagram is also a site where a significant number of children and teens spend time. Australian data from the e-Safety Commission in 2018 showed that while YouTube was the most popular platform, with 80 per cent of children 8-12 and 86 per cent of teens using the site, 24 per cent of children used Instagram, and 70 per cent of teens 13-17 (e-Safety Commissioner). Given the rise in social media, phone, and tablet use in the last five years, including among younger children, these statistics are now likely to be higher. A report from US-based Business Insider in 2021 stated that 40 per cent of children under 13 already use Instagram (Canales). This is despite the platform ostensibly only being for people aged 13 and over. Ofcom (the UK’s regulator for communications services) has discussed the rise of ‘Tik-Tots’ – young children defying age restrictions to be on social media – and the increase of young people consuming rather than sharing on social media (Ofcom). Insta-Kidfluencers on the Rise Marketers are now tapping into the selling power of children as social media influencers (or kidfluencers) to promote children’s toys, and in some cases, parents are happy to act as their children’s agents and managers for these pint-size prosumers. Abidin ("Micromicrocelebrity") was the first to discuss what she termed ‘micro-microcelebrities’, children of social media influencers (usually mothers) who have become, through their parents’ mediation, paid social media influencers themselves, often through Instagram. As Abidin noted: “their digital presence is deliberately commercial, framed and staged by Influencer mothers in order to maximize their advertorial potential, and are often postured to market even non-baby/parenting products such as fast food and vehicles”. Since that time, and with children now a growing audience on Instagram, some micro-microcelebrities have begun to promote toys alongside other brands which appeal to both children and adults. While initially these human ‘brand extensions’ of their mothers (Archer) appealed to adults, their sponsored content has evolved as they have aged, and their audience has grown and broadened to include children. Given the rise of Instagram as a site for the marketing of toys to children, through children themselves as social media influencers, and the lack of academic research on this phenomenon, our research looks at a case study of prominent child social media influencers on Instagram in Australia, who are managed by their mother, and who regularly promote toys. Within the case study, visual narrative analysis is used, to analyse the Instagram accounts of two high-profile child social media influencers, eleven-year-old Australian Pixie Curtis and her eight-year-old brother, Hunter Curtis, both of whom are managed by their entrepreneur and ‘PR queen’ mother, Roxy Jacenko. We analysed the posts from each child from March to July 2022 inclusive. Posts were recorded in a spreadsheet, with the content described, hashtags or handles recorded, and any brand or toy mentions noted. We used related media reports to supplement the analysis. We have considered ethical implications of our research and have made the decision to identify both children, as their accounts are public, with large follower numbers, promote commercial interests, and have the blue Instagram ‘tick’ that identifies their accounts as verified and ‘celebrity’ or brand accounts, and the children are regularly featured in mainstream media. The children’s mother, Jacenko, often discusses the children on television and has discussed using Pixie’s parties as events to gain publicity for the toy business. We have followed the lead of Abidin and Leaver, considered experts in the field, who have identified children and families in ethnographic research when the children or families have large numbers of followers (see Abidin, "#Familygoals"; Leaver and Abidin). We do acknowledge that other researchers have chosen not to identify influencer children (e.g., Ågren) with smaller numbers of followers. The research questions are as follows: RQ1: What are the toys featured on the two social media influencer children’s sites? RQ2: Are the toys traditionally gendered and if so, what are the main gender-based toys? RQ3: Do the children promote products that are traditionally aimed at adults? If so, how are these ‘toys’ presented, and what are they? Analysis The two child influencers and toy promoters, sister and brother Pixie (11) and Hunter (8) Curtis, are the children of celebrity, entrepreneur and public relations ‘maven’, Roxy Jacenko. Jacenko’s first business was a public relations firm, Sweaty Betty, one she ran successfully but has recently closed to focus on her influencer talent agency business, the Ministry of Talent, and the two businesses related to her children, Pixie’s Pix (an online toy store named after her daughter) and Pixie’s Bows, a line of fashion bows aimed at girls (Madigan). Pixie Curtis grew up with her own Instagram account, with her first Instagram post on 18 June 2013, before turning two, and featuring a promotion of an online subscription service for toys, with the hashtag #babblebox. At time of writing, Pixie has 120,000 Instagram followers; her ‘bio’ describes her account as ‘shopping and retail’ and as managed by Jacenko. Pixie is also described as the ‘founder of Pixie’s Pix Toy Store’. Her brother Hunter’s account began on 6 May 2015, with the first post to celebrate his first birthday. Hunter’s page has 20,000 followers with his profile stating that it is managed by his mother and her talent and influencer agency. RQ1: What are the toys featured on the two children’s Instagram sites? The two children feature toy promotions regularly, mostly from Pixie’s online toy shop, with the site tagged @pixiespixonline. These toys are often demonstrated by Pixie and Hunter in short video format, following the now-established genre of the toy unboxing or toy review. Toys that are shown on Pixie’s site (tagged to her toy store) include air-clay (clay designed to be used to create clay sculptures); a Scruff-a-Luv soft toy that mimics a rescue pet that needs to be bathed in water, dried, and groomed to become a ‘lovable’ soft toy pet; toy slime; kinetic sand; Hatchimals (flying fairy/pixie dolls that come out of plastic eggs); LOL OMG dolls and Mermaze (both with accentuated female/made up features). LOL OMG (short for Outrageous Millennial Girls) are described as “fierce, fashionable, fabulous” and their name taps into common language used to communicate while texting. Mermaze are also fashion and hair styling dolls, with a mermaid’s tail that changes colour in water. While predominantly promoting toys on Pixie’s Pix, Pixie posts promotions of other items on her Website aimed at children. This includes practical items such as lunch boxes, but also beauty products including a skin care headband and scented body scrubs. Toys shown on Hunter’s Instagram site are often promotions of his sister’s toy store offerings, but generally fall into the traditional ‘boys’ toys’ categories. The posts that tag the Pixie’s Pix store feature photos or video demonstrations by Hunter of toys, including trucks, slime, ‘Splat balls’ (squish balls), Pokémon cards, Zuru toys’ ‘Smashers’ (dinosaur eggs that are smashed to reveal a dinosaur toy), a Bubblegum simulator for Roblox (a social media platform and game), Needoh Stickums, water bombs, and Hot Wheels. RQ2: Are the toys traditionally gendered and if so, what are the main gender-based toys? Although both children promote gender-neutral sensory toys such as slime and splat balls, they do promote strongly gendered toys from Pixie’s Pix. Hunter also promotes gendered toys that are not tagged to Pixie’s Pix, including Jurassic World dinosaur toys (tying into the film release). One post by Hunter features a (paid) cross-promotion of PlayStation 5 themed Donut King donuts (with a competition to win a PlayStation 5 by buying the donuts). In contrast, Pixie posts a paid promotion of a high-tea event to promote My Little Ponies. Hunter’s posts of toys and leisure items that do not tag Pixie’s toyshop include him on a go-kart, buying rugby gear, and with an ‘airtasker’ (paid assistant) helping him sort his Nerf gun collection. There are posts of both children playing and doing ‘regular’ children’s activities, including sport (Pixie plays netball, Hunter rugby), with their dog, ice-skating, and swimming (albeit often at expensive resorts), while Hunter and Pixie both wear, unbox, and tag some high-end children’s clothes brands such as Balmain and promote department store Myer. RQ3: Do the children promote products that are traditionally aimed at adults? If so, how are these ‘toys’ presented, and what are they? The Cambridge dictionary provides the following two definitions of toys, with one showing that ‘toys’ may also be considered as objects of pleasure for adults. A toy is “an object for children to play with” while it can also be “an object that is used by an adult for pleasure rather than for serious use”. The very meaning of the word toys shows the crossover between the adult and children’s world. The more ‘adult’ products promoted by Pixie are highly gendered, with expensive bags, clothes, make-up, and skin care regularly featured on her account. These are arguably toys but also teen or adult objects of aspiration, with Pixie’s collection of handbags featured and the brand tagged. The bag collection includes brightly coloured bags by Australian designer Poppy Lissiman. Other female-focussed brands include a hairdryer brand, with photos and videos posted of Pixie ‘playing’ at dressing up and ‘getting ready’, using skincare, make-up, and hair products. These toys cater to age demographics older than Pixie. Hunter is pictured in posts on a jet-ski, and in others with a mobile and tablet, or washing a Tesla car and with a helicopter. The gendered tropes of girls being concerned with their appearance, and boys interested in vehicles, action, and competitive (video) games appear to be borne out in the posts from the two children. Discussion and Conclusion As an entrepreneur, Jacenko has capitalised on her daughter’s and son’s personal brands that she has co-created by launching and promoting a toyshop named after her daughter, following the success of her children’s promotion of toys for other companies and Pixie’s successful hairbow line. The toy shop arose out of Pixie promoting sales of fidget spinners during the pandemic lockdowns where toy sales rose sharply across the world. The children are also now on TikTok, and while they have a toy review channel on YouTube it has not been posted on for three years. Therefore, it is safe to assume that Instagram is one of the main channels for the children to promote the toyshop. In an online newspaper article describing the success of Pixie’s toyshop and the purchase of an expensive Mercedes car, Jacenko said that the children work hard, and the car was their “reward” (Scanlan). “The help both her brother and her [Pixie] give me on the buying (every night we work on new style selections and argue over it), the packing, the restocking, goes well beyond their years”, Jacenko is quoted as saying. “We’ve made a pact, we must keep going, work harder. Next, it’s a Rolls Royce.” Analysis of the children’s Instagram pages shows highly gendered promotion of toys. The children also promote a variety of high-end, aspirational tween, teen, and adult ‘toys’, including clothes, make-up, and skincare (Pixie) and expensive cars (Hunter and Pixie). Gender stereotyping has been found in adult influencer content (see, for example, Jorge et al.) and researchers have also pointed to sexualisation of young girl influencers on Instagram (Llovet et al.). Our research potentially echoes these findings. Posts from the children regularly include aspirational commodities that blur the lines between adult and child items of desire. Concerns have been raised in other academic articles (and in government reports) regarding the possible exploitation of children’s labour by parents and marketers to promote brands, including toys, on social media (see, for example, Ågren; De Veirman et al.; House of Commons; Masterson). The French government is believed to be the only government to have moved to regulate regarding the labour of children as social media influencers, and the same government at time of writing was debating laws to enshrine children’s right to privacy on social media, to stop the practice of ‘sharenting’ or parents sharing their children’s images and other content on social media without their children’s consent (Rieffel). Mainstream media including Teen Vogue (Fortesa), and some influencers themselves, have also started to raise issues relevant to ‘kidfluencers’. In the state of Utah, USA, the government has introduced laws to stop children under 18 having access to social media without parents’ consent, although some view this as potentially having some negative impacts (Singer). The ethics and impact of toy advertorials on children by social media influencers, with little or no disclosure of the posts being advertisements, have also been discussed elsewhere (see, for example, House of Commons; Jaakkola), with Rahali and Livingstone offering suggestions aimed key stakeholders. It has been found that beyond the marketing of toys and adult ‘luxuries’ to kids, other products that potentially harm children (for example, junk food and e-cigarettes) are also commonly seen in sponsored content on Instagram and YouTube aimed at children (Fleming‐Milici, Phaneuf, and Harris; Smith et al.). Indeed, it could be argued that e-cigarettes have been positioned as playthings and are appealing to children. While we may bemoan the loss of innocence of children, with the children in this analysis posed by their entrepreneurial mother as purveyors of material goods including toys, it is useful to remember that perhaps it has always been a conundrum, given the purpose of toy marketing is to make commercial sales. Children’s toys have always reflected and shaped society’s culture, often with surprisingly sinister and adult overtones, including the origins of Barbie as a male ‘sex’ toy (Bainbridge) and the blatant promotion of guns and other weapons to boys (for example the famous Mattel ‘burp’ gun of the 50s and 60s), through advertising and sponsorship of television (Hains and Jennings). Recently, fashion house Balenciaga promoted its range of adult bags using children as models via Instagram – the bags are teddy bears dressed in bondage outfits and the marketing stunt caused considerable backlash, with the sexually dressed bears and use of children raising outrage (Deguara). Were these teddy bags framed as children’s toys for adults or adult toys for children? The line was blurred. This research has limitations as it is focussed on a case study in one country (but with global reach through Instagram). However, the current analysis is believed to be one of the first to focus on children’s promotion of toys through Instagram, by two children’s influencers, a relatively new marketing approach aimed at children. As the article was being finalised, the children’s mother announced that as Pixie was transitioning into high school and wanted to focus on her studies rather than running a business, the toy business would conclude but Pixie’s Bows would continue (Madigan). In the UK, recent research by Livingstone et al. for the Digital Futures Commission potentially offers a way forward related to this phenomenon, when viewed alongside the analysis of our case study. Their final report (following research with children) suggests a Playful by Design Tool that would be useful for designers and brands, but also children, parents, regulators, and other stakeholders. Principles such as adopting ethical commercial models, being age-appropriate and ensuring safety, make sense when applied to kidfluencers and those that stand to benefit from their playbour. It appears that governments, society, some academics, and the media are starting to question the current generally unrestricted frameworks related to social media in general (see, for example, the ACCC’s ongoing enquiry) and toy and other marketing by kids to kids on social media specifically (House of Commons). We argue that more frameworks, and potentially laws, are required in this mostly unregulated space. Through our case study we have highlighted key areas of concern on one of the world’s most popular platforms for children and teens, including privacy issues, commodification, and gendered and ‘stealth’ marketing of toys through ‘advertorials’. We also acknowledge that children do gain playful and social benefits and entertainment from seeing influencers online. Given that it has been shown that gendered marketing of toys (and increased focus on appearance for girls through Instagram) could be potentially harmful to children’s self-esteem, and with related concerns on the continued commodification of childhood, further research is also needed to discover the responses and views of children to these advertorials masquerading as cute content. References Abidin, Crystal. "Micromicrocelebrity: Branding Babies on the Internet." M/C Journal 18.5 (2015). <https://doi.org/10.5204/mcj.1022>. ———. "#Familygoals: Family Influencers, Calibrated Amateurism, and Justifying Young Digital Labor." 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Introduction 2021 was the year that NFTs got big—not just in value but also in terms of the cultural consciousness. When digital artist Beeple sold the portfolio of his 5,000 daily images at Christie’s for US$69 million, the art world was left intrigued, confused, and outraged in equal measure. Depending on who you asked, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) seemed to be either a quick cash-grab or the future of the art market (Bowden and Jones; Smee). Following the Beeple sale, articles started to appear indicating that the film industry was abuzz for NFTs. Independent filmmaker Kevin Smith was quick to announce that he planned to release his horror film Killroy Was Here as an NFT (Alexander); in September 2021 the James Bond film No Time to Die also unveiled a series of collectibles to coincide with the film’s much-delayed theatrical release (Natalee); the distribution and collectible platforms Vuele, NFT Studios, and Mogul Productions all emerged, and the industry rumour mill suggests more start-ups are en route (CurrencyWorks; NFT Studios; NewsBTC). Blockchain disciples say that the technology will solve all the problems of the Internet (Tewari; Norton; European Business Review); critics say it will only perpetuate existing accessibility and equality issues (Davis and Flatow; Klein). Those more circumspect will doubtless sit back until the dust settles, waiting to see what parts of so-called web3 will be genuinely integrated into the architecture of the Internet. Pamela Hutchinson puts it neatly in terms of the arts sector: “the NFT may revolutionise the art market, film funding and distribution. Or it might be an ecological disaster and a financial bubble, in which few actual movies change hands, and fraudsters get rich from other people’s intellectual property” (Hutchinson). There is an uptick in the literature around NFTs and blockchain (see Quiniou; Gayvoronskaya & Meinel); however, the technology remains unregulated and unstandardised (Yeung 212-14; Dimitropoulos 112-13). Similarly, the sheer amount of funding being put into fundamental technical, data, and security-related issues speaks volumes to the nascency of the space (Ossinger; Livni; Gayvoronskaya & Meinel 52-6). Put very briefly, NFTs are part of a given blockchain system; think of them, like cryptocurrency coins, as “units of value” within that system (Roose). NFTs were initially rolled out on Ethereum, though several other blockchains have now implemented their own NFT frameworks. NFTs are usually not the artwork itself, but rather a unique, un-copyable (hence, non-fungible) piece of code that is attached, linked, or connected to another digital file, be that an image, video, text, or something else entirely. NFTs are often referred to as a digital artwork’s “certificate of authenticity” (Roose). At the time of writing, it remains to be seen how widely blockchain and NFT technology will be implemented across the entertainment industries. However, this article aims to outline the current state of implementation in the film trade specifically, and to attempt to sort true potential from the hype. Beginning with an overview of the core issues around blockchain and NFTs as they apply to film properties and adjacent products, current implementations of the technology are outlined, before finishing with a hesitant glimpse into the potential future applications. The Issues and Conversation At the core of current conversations around blockchain are three topics: intellectual property and ownership, concentrations of power and control, and environmental impact. To this I would like to add a consideration of social capital, which I begin with briefly here. Both the film industry and “crypto” — if we take the latter to encompass the various facets of so-called ‘web3’ — are engines of social capital. In the case of cinema, its products are commodified and passed through a model that begins with exclusivity (theatrical release) before progressing to mass availability (home media, streaming). The cinematic object, i.e., an individual copy of a film, is, by virtue of its origins as a mass product of the twentieth century, fungible. The film is captured, copied, stored, distributed, and shared. The film-industrial model has always relied on social phenomena, word of mouth, critical discourse, and latterly on buzz across digital social media platforms. This is perhaps as distinct from fine art, where — at least for dealers — the content of the piece does not necessarily matter so much as verification of ownership and provenance. Similarly, web3, with its decentralised and often-anonymised processes, relies on a kind of social activity, or at least a recorded interaction wherein the chain is stamped and each iteration is updated across the system. Even without the current hype, web3 still relies a great deal on discourse, sharing, and community, particularly as it flattens the existing hierarchies of the Internet that linger from Web 2.0. In terms of NFTs, blockchain systems attach scarcity and uniqueness to digital objects. For now, that scarcity and uniqueness is resulting in financial value, though as Jonathan Beller argues the notion of value could — or perhaps should — be reconsidered as blockchain technology, and especially cryptocurrencies, evolve (Beller 217). Regardless, NFT advocates maintain that this is the future of all online activity. To questions of copyright, the structures of blockchain do permit some level of certainty around where a given piece of intellectual property emerged. This is particularly useful where there are transnational differences in recognition of copyright law, such as in France, for instance (Quiniou 112-13). The Berne Convention stipulates that “the subsistence of copyright does not rest on the compliance with formal requirements: rights will exist if the work meets the requirements for protection set out by national law and treaties” (Guadamuz 1373). However, there are still no legal structures underpinning even the most transparent of transactions, when an originator goes out of their way to transfer rights to the buyer of the accompanying NFT. The minimum requirement — even courtesy — for the assignment of rights is the identification of the work itself; as Guadamuz notes, this is tricky for NFTs as they are written in code (1374). The blockchain’s openness and transparency are its key benefits, but until the code can explicitly include (or concretely and permanently reference) the ‘content’ of an NFT, its utility as a system of ownership is questionable. Decentralisation, too, is raised consistently as a key positive characteristic of blockchain technology. Despite the energy required for this decentralisation (addressed shortly), it is true that, at least in its base code, blockchain is a technology with no centralised source of truth or verification. Instead, such verification is performed by every node on the chain. On the surface, for the film industry, this might mean modes of financing, rights management, and distribution chains that are not beholden to multinational media conglomerates, streamers like Netflix, niche intermediaries, or legacy studios. The result here would be a flattening of the terrain: breaking down studio and corporate gatekeeping in favour of a more democratised creative landscape. Creators and creative teams would work peer-to-peer, paying, contracting, servicing, and distribution via the blockchain, with iron-clad, publicly accessible tracking of transactions and ownership. The alternative, though, is that the same imbalances persist, just in a different form: this is outlined in the next section. As Hunter Vaughan writes, the film industry’s environmental impact has long been under-examined. Its practices are diverse, distributed, and hard to quantify. Cinematic images, Vaughan writes, “do not come from nothing, and they do not vanish into the air: they have always been generated by the earth and sun, by fossil fuels and chemical reactions, and our enjoyment of them has material consequences” (3). We believe that by watching a “green” film like Avatar we are doing good, but it implicates us in the dirty secret, an issue of “ignorance and of voluntary psychosis” where “we do not see who we are harming or how these practices are affecting the environment, and we routinely agree to accept the virtual as real” (5). Beyond questions of implication and eco-material conceptualisation, however, there are stark facts. In the 1920s, the Kodak Park Plant in New York drew 12 million gallons of water from Lake Ontario each day to produce film stock. As the twentieth century came to a close, this amount — for a single film plant — had grown to 35-53 million gallons per day. The waste water was perfunctorily “cleaned” and then dumped into surrounding rivers (72-3). This was just one plant, and one part of the filmmaking process. With the shift to digital, this cost might now be calculated in the extraction of precious metals used to make contemporary cameras, computers, or storage devices. Regardless, extrapolate outwards to a global film industry and one quickly realises the impact is almost beyond comprehension. Considering — let alone calculating — the carbon footprint of blockchain requires outlining some fundamentals of the technology. The two primary architectures of blockchain are Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS), both of which denote methods of adding and verifying new blocks to a chain. PoW was the first model, employed by Bitcoin and the first iteration of Ethereum. In a PoW model, each new block has a specific cryptographic hash. To confirm the new block, crypto miners use their systems to generate a target hash that is less than or equal to that of the block. The systems process these calculations quickly, as the goal is to be “the first miner with the target hash because that miner is the one who can update the blockchain and receive crypto rewards” (Daly). The race for block confirmation necessitates huge amounts of processing power to make these quick calculations. The PoS model differs in that miners are replaced by validators (or staking services where participants pool validation power). Rather than investing in computer power, validators invest in the blockchain’s coins, staking those coins (tokens) in a smart contract (think of this contract like a bank account or vault). When a new block is proposed, an algorithm chooses a validator based on the size of their stake; if the block is verified, the validator receives further cryptocurrency as a reward (Castor). Given the ubiquity and exponential growth of blockchain technology and its users, an accurate quantification of its carbon footprint is difficult. For some precedent, though, one might consider the impact of the Bitcoin blockchain, which runs on a PoW model. As the New York Times so succinctly puts it: “the process of creating Bitcoin to spend or trade consumes around 91 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, more than is used by Finland, a nation of about 5.5 million” (Huang, O’Neill and Tabuchi). The current Ethereum system (at time of writing), where the majority of NFT transactions take place, also runs on PoW, and it is estimated that a single Ethereum transaction is equivalent to nearly nine days of power consumption by an average US household (Digiconomist). Ethereum always intended to operate on a PoS system, and the transition to this new model is currently underway (Castor). Proof of Stake transactions use significantly less energy — the new Ethereum will supposedly be approximately 2,000 times more energy efficient (Beekhuizen). However, newer systems such as Solana have been explicit about their efficiency goals, stating that a single Solana transaction uses less energy (1,837 Joules, to be precise) than keeping an LED light on for one hour (36,000 J); one Ethereum transaction, for comparison, uses over 692 million J (Solana). In addition to energy usage, however, there is also the question of e-waste as a result of mining and general blockchain operations which, at the time of writing, for Bitcoin sits at around 32 kilotons per year, around the same as the consumer IT wastage of the Netherlands (de Vries and Stoll). How the growth in NFT awareness and adoption amplifies this impact remains to be seen, but depending on which blockchain they use, they may be wasting energy and resources by design. If using a PoW model, the more valuable the cryptocurrency used to make the purchase, the more energy (“gas”) required to authenticate the purchase across the chain. Images abound online of jerry-rigged crypto data centres of varying quality (see also efficiency and safety). With each NFT minted, sold, or traded, these centres draw — and thus waste, for gas — more and more energy. With increased public attention and scrutiny, cryptocurrencies are slowly realising that things could be better. As sustainable alternatives become more desirable and mainstream, it is safe to predict that many NFT marketplaces may migrate to Cardano, Solana, or other more efficient blockchain bases. For now, though, this article considers the existing implementations of NFTs and blockchain technology within the film industry. Current Implementations The current applications of NFTs in film centre around financing and distribution. In terms of the former, NFTs are saleable items that can raise capital for production, distribution, or marketing. As previously mentioned, director Kevin Smith launched Jay & Silent Bob’s Crypto Studio in order to finish and release Killroy Was Here. Smith released over 600 limited edition tokens, including one of the film itself (Moore). In October 2021, renowned Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai sold an NFT with unreleased footage from his film In the Mood for Love at Sotheby’s for US$550,000 (Raybaud). Quentin Tarantino entered the arena in January 2022, auctioning uncut scenes from his 1994 film Pulp Fiction, despite the threat of legal action from the film’s original distributor Miramax (Dailey). In Australia, an early adopter of the technology is director Michael Beets, who works in virtual production and immersive experiences. His immersive 14-minute VR film Nezunoban (2020) was split into seven different chapters, and each chapter was sold as an NFT. Beets also works with artists to develop entry tickets that are their own piece of generative art; with these tickets and the chapters selling for hundreds of dollars at a time, Beets seems to have achieved the impossible: turning a profit on a short film (Fletcher). Another Australian writer-producer, Samuel Wilson, now based in Canada, suggests that the technology does encourage filmmakers to think differently about what they create: At the moment, I’m making NFTs from extra footage of my feature film Miles Away, which will be released early next year. In one way, it’s like a new age of behind-the-scenes/bonus features. I have 14 hours of DV tapes that I’m cutting into a short film which I will then sell in chapters over the coming months. One chapter will feature the dashing KJ Apa (Songbird, Riverdale) without his shirt on. So, hopefully that can turn some heads. (Wilson, in Fletcher) In addition to individual directors, a number of startup companies are also seeking to get in on the action. One of these is Vuele, which is best understood as a blockchain-based streaming service: an NFT Netflix, if you like. In addition to films themselves, the service will offer extra content as NFTs, including “behind the scenes content, bonus features, exclusive Q&As, and memorabilia” (CurrencyWorks). Vuele’s launch title is Zero Contact, directed by Rick Dugdale and starring Anthony Hopkins. The film is marketed as “the World’s First NFT Feature Film” (as at the time of writing, though, both Vuele and its flagship film have yet to launch). Also launching is NFT Studios, a blockchain-based production company that distributes the executive producer role to those buying into the project. NFT Studios is a decentralised administrative organisation (DAO), guided by tech experts, producers, and film industry intermediaries. NFT Studios is launching with A Wing and a Prayer, a biopic of aeronaut Brian Milton (NFT Studios), and will announce their full slate across festivals in 2022. In Australia, Culture Vault states that its aim is to demystify crypto and champion Australian artists’ rights and access to the space. Co-founder and CEO Michelle Grey is well aware of the aforementioned current social capital of NFTs, but is also acutely aware of the space’s opacity and the ubiquity of often machine-generated tat. “The early NFT space was in its infancy, there was a lot of crap around, but don’t forget there’s a lot of garbage in the traditional art world too,” she says (cited in Miller). Grey and her company effectively act like art dealers; intermediaries between the tech and art worlds. These new companies claim to be adhering to the principles of web3, often selling themselves as collectives, DAOs, or distributed administrative systems. But the entrenched tendencies of the film industry — particularly the persistent Hollywood system — are not so easily broken down. Vuele is a joint venture between CurrencyWorks and Enderby Entertainment. The former is a financial technology company setting up blockchain systems for businesses, including the establishment of branded digital currencies such as the controversial FreedomCoin (Memoria); the latter, Enderby, is a production company founded by Canadian film producer (and former investor relations expert in the oil and uranium sectors) Rick Dugdale (Wiesner). Similarly, NFT Studios is partnered with consulting and marketing agencies and blockchain venture capitalists (NFT Investments PLC). Depending on how charitable or cynical one is feeling, these start-ups are either helpful intermediaries to facilitate legacy media moving into NFT technology, or the first bricks in the capitalist wall to bar access for entry to other players. The Future Is… Buffering Marketplaces like Mintable, OpenSea, and Rarible do indeed make the minting and selling of NFTs fairly straightforward — if you’ve ever listed an item for sale on eBay or Facebook, you can probably mint an NFT. Despite this, the current major barrier for average punters to the NFT space remains technical knowledge. The principles of blockchain remain fairly opaque — even this author, who has been on a deep dive for this article, remains sceptical that widespread adoption across multiple applications and industries is feasible. Even so, as Rennie notes, “the unknown is not what blockchain technology is, or even what it is for (there are countless ‘use cases’), but how it structures the actions of those who use it” (235). At the time of writing, a great many commentators and a small handful of scholars are speculating about the role of the metaverse in the creative space. If the endgame of the metaverse is realised, i.e., a virtual, interactive space where users can interact, trade, and consume entertainment, the role of creators, dealers, distributors, and other brokers and players will be up-ended, and have to re-settle once again. Film industry practitioners might look to the games space to see what the road might look like, but then again, in an industry that is — at its best — somewhat resistant to change, this may simply be a fad that blows over. Blockchain’s current employment as a get-rich-quick mechanism for the algorithmic literati and as a computational extension of existing power structures suggests nothing more than another techno-bubble primed to burst (Patrickson 591-2; Klein). Despite the aspirational commentary surrounding distributed administrative systems and organisations, the current implementations are restricted, for now, to startups like NFT Studios. In terms of cinema, it does remain to be seen whether the deployment of NFTs will move beyond a kind of “Netflix with tchotchkes” model, or a variant of crowdfunding with perks. Once Vuele and NFT Studios launch properly, we may have a sense of how this all will play out, particularly alongside less corporate-driven, more artistically-minded initiatives like that of Michael Beets and Culture Vault. It is possible, too, that blockchain technology may streamline the mechanics of the industry in terms of automating or simplifying parts of the production process, particularly around contracts, financing, licensing. This would obviously remove some of the associated labour and fees, but would also de-couple long-established parts and personnel of the industry — would Hollywood and similar industrial-entertainment complexes let this happen? As with any of the many revolutions that have threatened to kill or resurrect the (allegedly) long-suffering cinematic object, we just have to wait, and watch. References Alexander, Bryan. “Kevin Smith Reveals Why He’s Auctioning Off New His Film ‘Killroy Was Here’ as an NFT.” USA TODAY, 15 Apr. 2021. <https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2021/04/15/kevin-smith-auctioning-new-film-nft-killroy-here/7244602002/>. Beekhuizen, Carl. “Ethereum’s Energy Usage Will Soon Decrease by ~99.95%.” Ethereum Foundation Blog, 18 May 2021. <https://blog.ethereum.org/2021/05/18/country-power-no-more/>. Beller, Jonathan. “Economic Media: Crypto and the Myth of Total Liquidity.” Australian Humanities Review 66 (2020): 215-225. Beller, Jonathan. The Cinematic Mode of Production: Attention Economy and the Society of the Spectacle. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College P, 2006. Bowden, James, and Edward Thomas Jones. “NFTs Are Much Bigger than an Art Fad – Here’s How They Could Change the World.” The Conversation, 26 Apr. 2021. <http://theconversation.com/nfts-are-much-bigger-than-an-art-fad-heres-how-they-could-change-the-world-159563>. Cardano. “Cardano, Ouroboros.” 14 Feb. 2022 <https://cardano.org/ouroboros/>. Castor, Amy. “Why Ethereum Is Switching to Proof of Stake and How It Will Work.” MIT Technology Review, 4 Mar. 2022. <https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/03/04/1046636/ethereum-blockchain-proof-of-stake/>. CurrencyWorks. “Vuele - CurrencyWorks™.” 3 Feb. 2022 <https://currencyworks.io/project/vuele/>. Dailey, Natasha. “Quentin Tarantino Will Sell His ‘Pulp Fiction’ NFTs This Month despite a Lawsuit from the Film’s Producer Miramax.” Business Insider, 5 Jan. 2022. <https://www.businessinsider.com.au/quentin-tarantino-to-sell-pulp-fiction-nft-despite-miramax-lawsuit-2022-1>. Daly, Lyle. “What Is Proof of Work (PoW) in Crypto?” The Motley Fool, 27 Sep. 2021. <https://www.fool.com/investing/stock-market/market-sectors/financials/cryptocurrency-stocks/proof-of-work/>. Davis, Kathleen, and Ira Flatow. “Will Blockchain Really Change the Way the Internet Runs?” Science Friday, 23 July 2021. <https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/blockchain-internet/>. De Vries, Alex, and Christian Stoll. “Bitcoin’s Growing E-Waste Problem.” Resources, Conservation & Recycling 175 (2021): 1-11. Dimitropoulos, Georgios. “Global Currencies and Domestic Regulation: Embedding through Enabling?” In Regulating Blockchain: Techno-Social and Legal Challenges. Eds. Philipp Hacker et al. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2019. 112–139. Edelman, Gilad. “What Is Web3, Anyway?” Wired, Nov. 2021. <https://www.wired.com/story/web3-gavin-wood-interview/>. European Business Review. “Future of Blockchain: How Will It Revolutionize the World in 2022 & Beyond!” The European Business Review, 1 Nov. 2021. <https://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/future-of-blockchain-how-will-it-revolutionize-the-world-in-2022-beyond/>. Fletcher, James. “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the NFT!” FilmInk, 2 Oct. 2021. <https://www.filmink.com.au/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-nft/>. Gayvoronskaya, Tatiana, and Christoph Meinel. Blockchain: Hype or Innovation. Cham: Springer. Guadamuz, Andres. “The Treachery of Images: Non-Fungible Tokens and Copyright.” Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice 16.12 (2021): 1367–1385. Huang, Jon, Claire O’Neill, and Hiroko Tabuchi. “Bitcoin Uses More Electricity than Many Countries. How Is That Possible?” The New York Times, 3 Sep. 2021. <http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/09/03/climate/bitcoin-carbon-footprint-electricity.html>. Hutchinson, Pamela. “Believe the Hype? What NFTs Mean for Film.” BFI, 22 July 2021. <https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/nfts-non-fungible-tokens-blockchain-film-funding-revolution-hype>. Klein, Ezra. “A Viral Case against Crypto, Explored.” The Ezra Klein Show, n.d. 7 Apr. 2022 <https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/05/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-dan-olson.html>. Livni, Ephrat. “Venture Capital Funding for Crypto Companies Is Surging.” The New York Times, 1 Dec. 2021. <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/01/business/dealbook/crypto-venture-capital.html>. Memoria, Francisco. “Popular Firearms Marketplace GunBroker to Launch ‘FreedomCoin’ Stablecoin.” CryptoGlobe, 30 Jan. 2019. <https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2019/01/popular-firearm-marketplace-gunbroker-to-launch-freedomcoin-stablecoin/>. Miller, Nick. “Australian Start-Up Aims to Make the Weird World of NFT Art ‘Less Crap’.” Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Jan. 2022. <https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/australian-startup-aims-to-make-the-weird-world-of-nft-art-less-crap-20220119-p59pev.html>. Moore, Kevin. “Kevin Smith Drops an NFT Project Packed with Utility.” One37pm, 27 Apr. 2021. <https://www.one37pm.com/nft/art/kevin-smith-jay-and-silent-bob-nft-killroy-was-here>. Nano. “Press Kit.” 14 Feb. 2022 <https://content.nano.org/Nano-Press-Kit.pdf>. Natalee. “James Bond No Time to Die VeVe NFTs Launch.” NFT Culture, 22 Sep. 2021. <https://www.nftculture.com/nft-marketplaces/4147/>. NewsBTC. “Mogul Productions to Conduct the First Ever Blockchain-Based Voting for Film Financing.” NewsBTC, 22 July 2021. <https://www.newsbtc.com/news/company/mogul-productions-to-conduct-the-first-ever-blockchain-based-voting-for-film-financing/>. NFT Investments PLC. “Approach.” 21 Jan. 2022 <https://www.nftinvest.pro/approach>. NFT Studios. “Projects.” 9 Feb. 2022 <https://nftstudios.dev/projects>. Norton, Robert. “NFTs Have Changed the Art of the Possible.” Wired UK, 14 Feb. 2022. <https://www.wired.co.uk/article/nft-art-world>. Ossinger, Joanna. “Crypto World Hits $3 Trillion Market Cap as Ether, Bitcoin Gain.” Bloomberg.com, 8 Nov. 2021. <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-08/crypto-world-hits-3-trillion-market-cap-as-ether-bitcoin-gain>. Patrickson, Bronwin. “What Do Blockchain Technologies Imply for Digital Creative Industries?” Creativity and Innovation Management 30.3 (2021): 585–595. Quiniou, Matthieu. Blockchain: The Advent of Disintermediation, New York: John Wiley, 2019. Raybaud, Sebastien. “First Asian Film NFT Sold, Wong Kar-Wai’s ‘In the Mood for Love’ Fetches US$550k in Sotheby’s Evening Sale, Auctions News.” TheValue.Com, 10 Oct. 2021. <https://en.thevalue.com/articles/sothebys-auction-wong-kar-wai-in-the-mood-for-love-nft>. Rennie, Ellie. “The Challenges of Distributed Administrative Systems.” Australian Humanities Review 66 (2020): 233-239. Roose, Kevin. “What are NFTs?” The New York Times, 18 Mar. 2022. <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/18/technology/nft-guide.html>. Smee, Sebastian. “Will NFTs Transform the Art World? Are They Even Art?” Washington Post, 18 Dec. 2021. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/12/18/nft-art-faq/>. Solana. “Solana’s Energy Use Report: November 2021.” Solana, 24 Nov. 2021. <https://solana.com/news/solana-energy-usage-report-november-2021>. Tewari, Hitesh. “Four Ways Blockchain Could Make the Internet Safer, Fairer and More Creative.” The Conversation, 12 July 2019. <http://theconversation.com/four-ways-blockchain-could-make-the-internet-safer-fairer-and-more-creative-118706>. Vaughan, Hunter. Hollywood’s Dirtiest Secret: The Hidden Environmental Costs of the Movies. New York: Columbia UP, 2019. Vision and Value. “CurrencyWorks (CWRK): Under-the-Radar, Crypto-Agnostic, Blockchain Pick-and-Shovel Play.” Seeking Alpha, 1 Dec. 2021. <https://seekingalpha.com/article/4472715-currencyworks-under-the-radar-crypto-agnostic-blockchain-pick-and-shovel-play>. Wiesner, Darren. “Exclusive – BC Producer – Rick Dugdale Becomes a Heavyweight.” Hollywood North Magazine, 29 Aug. 2017. <https://hnmag.ca/interview/exclusive-bc-producer-rick-dugdale-becomes-a-heavyweight/>. Yeung, Karen. “Regulation by Blockchain: The Emerging Battle for Supremacy between the Code of Law and Code as Law.” The Modern Law Review 82.2 (2019): 207–239.

Photo ID 158378414 © Eduard Muzhevskyi | Dreamstime.com ABSTRACT There is a debate about the ethical implications of using human embryos in stem cell research, which can be influenced by cultural, moral, and social values. This paper argues for an adaptable framework to accommodate diverse cultural and religious perspectives. By using an adaptive ethics model, research protections can reflect various populations and foster growth in stem cell research possibilities. INTRODUCTION Stem cell research combines biology, medicine, and technology, promising to alter health care and the understanding of human development. Yet, ethical contention exists because of individuals’ perceptions of using human embryos based on their various cultural, moral, and social values. While these disagreements concerning policy, use, and general acceptance have prompted the development of an international ethics policy, such a uniform approach can overlook the nuanced ethical landscapes between cultures. With diverse viewpoints in public health, a single global policy, especially one reflecting Western ethics or the ethics prevalent in high-income countries, is impractical. This paper argues for a culturally sensitive, adaptable framework for the use of embryonic stem cells. Stem cell policy should accommodate varying ethical viewpoints and promote an effective global dialogue. With an extension of an ethics model that can adapt to various cultures, we recommend localized guidelines that reflect the moral views of the people those guidelines serve. BACKGROUND Stem cells, characterized by their unique ability to differentiate into various cell types, enable the repair or replacement of damaged tissues. Two primary types of stem cells are somatic stem cells (adult stem cells) and embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cells exist in developed tissues and maintain the body’s repair processes.[1] Embryonic stem cells (ESC) are remarkably pluripotent or versatile, making them valuable in research.[2] However, the use of ESCs has sparked ethics debates. Considering the potential of embryonic stem cells, research guidelines are essential. The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) provides international stem cell research guidelines. They call for “public conversations touching on the scientific significance as well as the societal and ethical issues raised by ESC research.”[3] The ISSCR also publishes updates about culturing human embryos 14 days post fertilization, suggesting local policies and regulations should continue to evolve as ESC research develops.[4] Like the ISSCR, which calls for local law and policy to adapt to developing stem cell research given cultural acceptance, this paper highlights the importance of local social factors such as religion and culture. I. Global Cultural Perspective of Embryonic Stem Cells Views on ESCs vary throughout the world. Some countries readily embrace stem cell research and therapies, while others have stricter regulations due to ethical concerns surrounding embryonic stem cells and when an embryo becomes entitled to moral consideration. The philosophical issue of when the “someone” begins to be a human after fertilization, in the morally relevant sense,[5] impacts when an embryo becomes not just worthy of protection but morally entitled to it. The process of creating embryonic stem cell lines involves the destruction of the embryos for research.[6] Consequently, global engagement in ESC research depends on social-cultural acceptability. a. US and Rights-Based Cultures In the United States, attitudes toward stem cell therapies are diverse. The ethics and social approaches, which value individualism,[7] trigger debates regarding the destruction of human embryos, creating a complex regulatory environment. For example, the 1996 Dickey-Wicker Amendment prohibited federal funding for the creation of embryos for research and the destruction of embryos for “more than allowed for research on fetuses in utero.”[8] Following suit, in 2001, the Bush Administration heavily restricted stem cell lines for research. However, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005 was proposed to help develop ESC research but was ultimately vetoed.[9] Under the Obama administration, in 2009, an executive order lifted restrictions allowing for more development in this field.[10] The flux of research capacity and funding parallels the different cultural perceptions of human dignity of the embryo and how it is socially presented within the country’s research culture.[11] b. Ubuntu and Collective Cultures African bioethics differs from Western individualism because of the different traditions and values. African traditions, as described by individuals from South Africa and supported by some studies in other African countries, including Ghana and Kenya, follow the African moral philosophies of Ubuntu or Botho and Ukama, which “advocates for a form of wholeness that comes through one’s relationship and connectedness with other people in the society,”[12] making autonomy a socially collective concept. In this context, for the community to act autonomously, individuals would come together to decide what is best for the collective. Thus, stem cell research would require examining the value of the research to society as a whole and the use of the embryos as a collective societal resource. If society views the source as part of the collective whole, and opposes using stem cells, compromising the cultural values to pursue research may cause social detachment and stunt research growth.[13] Based on local culture and moral philosophy, the permissibility of stem cell research depends on how embryo, stem cell, and cell line therapies relate to the community as a whole. Ubuntu is the expression of humanness, with the person’s identity drawn from the “’I am because we are’” value.[14] The decision in a collectivistic culture becomes one born of cultural context, and individual decisions give deference to others in the society. Consent differs in cultures where thought and moral philosophy are based on a collective paradigm. So, applying Western bioethical concepts is unrealistic. For one, Africa is a diverse continent with many countries with different belief systems, access to health care, and reliance on traditional or Western medicines. Where traditional medicine is the primary treatment, the “’restrictive focus on biomedically-related bioethics’” [is] problematic in African contexts because it neglects bioethical issues raised by traditional systems.”[15] No single approach applies in all areas or contexts. Rather than evaluating the permissibility of ESC research according to Western concepts such as the four principles approach, different ethics approaches should prevail. Another consideration is the socio-economic standing of countries. In parts of South Africa, researchers have not focused heavily on contributing to the stem cell discourse, either because it is not considered health care or a health science priority or because resources are unavailable.[16] Each country’s priorities differ given different social, political, and economic factors. In South Africa, for instance, areas such as maternal mortality, non-communicable diseases, telemedicine, and the strength of health systems need improvement and require more focus[17] Stem cell research could benefit the population, but it also could divert resources from basic medical care. Researchers in South Africa adhere to the National Health Act and Medicines Control Act in South Africa and international guidelines; however, the Act is not strictly enforced, and there is no clear legislation for research conduct or ethical guidelines.[18] Some parts of Africa condemn stem cell research. For example, 98.2 percent of the Tunisian population is Muslim.[19] Tunisia does not permit stem cell research because of moral conflict with a Fatwa. Religion heavily saturates the regulation and direction of research.[20] Stem cell use became permissible for reproductive purposes only recently, with tight restrictions preventing cells from being used in any research other than procedures concerning ART/IVF. Their use is conditioned on consent, and available only to married couples.[21] The community's receptiveness to stem cell research depends on including communitarian African ethics. c. Asia Some Asian countries also have a collective model of ethics and decision making.[22] In China, the ethics model promotes a sincere respect for life or human dignity,[23] based on protective medicine. This model, influenced by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), [24] recognizes Qi as the vital energy delivered via the meridians of the body; it connects illness to body systems, the body’s entire constitution, and the universe for a holistic bond of nature, health, and quality of life.[25] Following a protective ethics model, and traditional customs of wholeness, investment in stem cell research is heavily desired for its applications in regenerative therapies, disease modeling, and protective medicines. In a survey of medical students and healthcare practitioners, 30.8 percent considered stem cell research morally unacceptable while 63.5 percent accepted medical research using human embryonic stem cells. Of these individuals, 89.9 percent supported increased funding for stem cell research.[26] The scientific community might not reflect the overall population. From 1997 to 2019, China spent a total of $576 million (USD) on stem cell research at 8,050 stem cell programs, increased published presence from 0.6 percent to 14.01 percent of total global stem cell publications as of 2014, and made significant strides in cell-based therapies for various medical conditions.[27] However, while China has made substantial investments in stem cell research and achieved notable progress in clinical applications, concerns linger regarding ethical oversight and transparency.[28] For example, the China Biosecurity Law, promoted by the National Health Commission and China Hospital Association, attempted to mitigate risks by introducing an institutional review board (IRB) in the regulatory bodies. 5800 IRBs registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry since 2021.[29] However, issues still need to be addressed in implementing effective IRB review and approval procedures. The substantial government funding and focus on scientific advancement have sometimes overshadowed considerations of regional cultures, ethnic minorities, and individual perspectives, particularly evident during the one-child policy era. As government policy adapts to promote public stability, such as the change from the one-child to the two-child policy,[30] research ethics should also adapt to ensure respect for the values of its represented peoples. Japan is also relatively supportive of stem cell research and therapies. Japan has a more transparent regulatory framework, allowing for faster approval of regenerative medicine products, which has led to several advanced clinical trials and therapies.[31] South Korea is also actively engaged in stem cell research and has a history of breakthroughs in cloning and embryonic stem cells.[32] However, the field is controversial, and there are issues of scientific integrity. For example, the Korean FDA fast-tracked products for approval,[33] and in another instance, the oocyte source was unclear and possibly violated ethical standards.[34] Trust is important in research, as it builds collaborative foundations between colleagues, trial participant comfort, open-mindedness for complicated and sensitive discussions, and supports regulatory procedures for stakeholders. There is a need to respect the culture’s interest, engagement, and for research and clinical trials to be transparent and have ethical oversight to promote global research discourse and trust. d. Middle East Countries in the Middle East have varying degrees of acceptance of or restrictions to policies related to using embryonic stem cells due to cultural and religious influences. Saudi Arabia has made significant contributions to stem cell research, and conducts research based on international guidelines for ethical conduct and under strict adherence to guidelines in accordance with Islamic principles. Specifically, the Saudi government and people require ESC research to adhere to Sharia law. In addition to umbilical and placental stem cells,[35] Saudi Arabia permits the use of embryonic stem cells as long as they come from miscarriages, therapeutic abortions permissible by Sharia law, or are left over from in vitro fertilization and donated to research.[36] Laws and ethical guidelines for stem cell research allow the development of research institutions such as the King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, which has a cord blood bank and a stem cell registry with nearly 10,000 donors.[37] Such volume and acceptance are due to the ethical ‘permissibility’ of the donor sources, which do not conflict with religious pillars. However, some researchers err on the side of caution, choosing not to use embryos or fetal tissue as they feel it is unethical to do so.[38] Jordan has a positive research ethics culture.[39] However, there is a significant issue of lack of trust in researchers, with 45.23 percent (38.66 percent agreeing and 6.57 percent strongly agreeing) of Jordanians holding a low level of trust in researchers, compared to 81.34 percent of Jordanians agreeing that they feel safe to participate in a research trial.[40] Safety testifies to the feeling of confidence that adequate measures are in place to protect participants from harm, whereas trust in researchers could represent the confidence in researchers to act in the participants’ best interests, adhere to ethical guidelines, provide accurate information, and respect participants’ rights and dignity. One method to improve trust would be to address communication issues relevant to ESC. Legislation surrounding stem cell research has adopted specific language, especially concerning clarification “between ‘stem cells’ and ‘embryonic stem cells’” in translation.[41] Furthermore, legislation “mandates the creation of a national committee… laying out specific regulations for stem-cell banking in accordance with international standards.”[42] This broad regulation opens the door for future global engagement and maintains transparency. However, these regulations may also constrain the influence of research direction, pace, and accessibility of research outcomes. e. Europe In the European Union (EU), ethics is also principle-based, but the principles of autonomy, dignity, integrity, and vulnerability are interconnected.[43] As such, the opportunity for cohesion and concessions between individuals’ thoughts and ideals allows for a more adaptable ethics model due to the flexible principles that relate to the human experience The EU has put forth a framework in its Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being allowing member states to take different approaches. Each European state applies these principles to its specific conventions, leading to or reflecting different acceptance levels of stem cell research. [44] For example, in Germany, Lebenzusammenhang, or the coherence of life, references integrity in the unity of human culture. Namely, the personal sphere “should not be subject to external intervention.”[45] Stem cell interventions could affect this concept of bodily completeness, leading to heavy restrictions. Under the Grundgesetz, human dignity and the right to life with physical integrity are paramount.[46] The Embryo Protection Act of 1991 made producing cell lines illegal. Cell lines can be imported if approved by the Central Ethics Commission for Stem Cell Research only if they were derived before May 2007.[47] Stem cell research respects the integrity of life for the embryo with heavy specifications and intense oversight. This is vastly different in Finland, where the regulatory bodies find research more permissible in IVF excess, but only up to 14 days after fertilization.[48] Spain’s approach differs still, with a comprehensive regulatory framework.[49] Thus, research regulation can be culture-specific due to variations in applied principles. Diverse cultures call for various approaches to ethical permissibility.[50] Only an adaptive-deliberative model can address the cultural constructions of self and achieve positive, culturally sensitive stem cell research practices.[51] II. Religious Perspectives on ESC Embryonic stem cell sources are the main consideration within religious contexts. While individuals may not regard their own religious texts as authoritative or factual, religion can shape their foundations or perspectives. The Qur'an states: “And indeed We created man from a quintessence of clay. Then We placed within him a small quantity of nutfa (sperm to fertilize) in a safe place. Then We have fashioned the nutfa into an ‘alaqa (clinging clot or cell cluster), then We developed the ‘alaqa into mudgha (a lump of flesh), and We made mudgha into bones, and clothed the bones with flesh, then We brought it into being as a new creation. So Blessed is Allah, the Best of Creators.”[52] Many scholars of Islam estimate the time of soul installment, marked by the angel breathing in the soul to bring the individual into creation, as 120 days from conception.[53] Personhood begins at this point, and the value of life would prohibit research or experimentation that could harm the individual. If the fetus is more than 120 days old, the time ensoulment is interpreted to occur according to Islamic law, abortion is no longer permissible.[54] There are a few opposing opinions about early embryos in Islamic traditions. According to some Islamic theologians, there is no ensoulment of the early embryo, which is the source of stem cells for ESC research.[55] In Buddhism, the stance on stem cell research is not settled. The main tenets, the prohibition against harming or destroying others (ahimsa) and the pursuit of knowledge (prajña) and compassion (karuna), leave Buddhist scholars and communities divided.[56] Some scholars argue stem cell research is in accordance with the Buddhist tenet of seeking knowledge and ending human suffering. Others feel it violates the principle of not harming others. Finding the balance between these two points relies on the karmic burden of Buddhist morality. In trying to prevent ahimsa towards the embryo, Buddhist scholars suggest that to comply with Buddhist tenets, research cannot be done as the embryo has personhood at the moment of conception and would reincarnate immediately, harming the individual's ability to build their karmic burden.[57] On the other hand, the Bodhisattvas, those considered to be on the path to enlightenment or Nirvana, have given organs and flesh to others to help alleviate grieving and to benefit all.[58] Acceptance varies on applied beliefs and interpretations. Catholicism does not support embryonic stem cell research, as it entails creation or destruction of human embryos. This destruction conflicts with the belief in the sanctity of life. For example, in the Old Testament, Genesis describes humanity as being created in God’s image and multiplying on the Earth, referencing the sacred rights to human conception and the purpose of development and life. In the Ten Commandments, the tenet that one should not kill has numerous interpretations where killing could mean murder or shedding of the sanctity of life, demonstrating the high value of human personhood. In other books, the theological conception of when life begins is interpreted as in utero,[59] highlighting the inviolability of life and its formation in vivo to make a religious point for accepting such research as relatively limited, if at all.[60] The Vatican has released ethical directives to help apply a theological basis to modern-day conflicts. The Magisterium of the Church states that “unless there is a moral certainty of not causing harm,” experimentation on fetuses, fertilized cells, stem cells, or embryos constitutes a crime.[61] Such procedures would not respect the human person who exists at these stages, according to Catholicism. Damages to the embryo are considered gravely immoral and illicit.[62] Although the Catholic Church officially opposes abortion, surveys demonstrate that many Catholic people hold pro-choice views, whether due to the context of conception, stage of pregnancy, threat to the mother’s life, or for other reasons, demonstrating that practicing members can also accept some but not all tenets.[63] Some major Jewish denominations, such as the Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist movements, are open to supporting ESC use or research as long as it is for saving a life.[64] Within Judaism, the Talmud, or study, gives personhood to the child at birth and emphasizes that life does not begin at conception:[65] “If she is found pregnant, until the fortieth day it is mere fluid,”[66] Whereas most religions prioritize the status of human embryos, the Halakah (Jewish religious law) states that to save one life, most other religious laws can be ignored because it is in pursuit of preservation.[67] Stem cell research is accepted due to application of these religious laws. We recognize that all religions contain subsets and sects. The variety of environmental and cultural differences within religious groups requires further analysis to respect the flexibility of religious thoughts and practices. We make no presumptions that all cultures require notions of autonomy or morality as under the common morality theory, which asserts a set of universal moral norms that all individuals share provides moral reasoning and guides ethical decisions.[68] We only wish to show that the interaction with morality varies between cultures and countries. III. A Flexible Ethical Approach The plurality of different moral approaches described above demonstrates that there can be no universally acceptable uniform law for ESC on a global scale. Instead of developing one standard, flexible ethical applications must be continued. We recommend local guidelines that incorporate important cultural and ethical priorities. While the Declaration of Helsinki is more relevant to people in clinical trials receiving ESC products, in keeping with the tradition of protections for research subjects, consent of the donor is an ethical requirement for ESC donation in many jurisdictions including the US, Canada, and Europe.[69] The Declaration of Helsinki provides a reference point for regulatory standards and could potentially be used as a universal baseline for obtaining consent prior to gamete or embryo donation. For instance, in Columbia University’s egg donor program for stem cell research, donors followed standard screening protocols and “underwent counseling sessions that included information as to the purpose of oocyte donation for research, what the oocytes would be used for, the risks and benefits of donation, and process of oocyte stimulation” to ensure transparency for consent.[70] The program helped advance stem cell research and provided clear and safe research methods with paid participants. Though paid participation or covering costs of incidental expenses may not be socially acceptable in every culture or context,[71] and creating embryos for ESC research is illegal in many jurisdictions, Columbia’s program was effective because of the clear and honest communications with donors, IRBs, and related stakeholders. This example demonstrates that cultural acceptance of scientific research and of the idea that an egg or embryo does not have personhood is likely behind societal acceptance of donating eggs for ESC research. As noted, many countries do not permit the creation of embryos for research. Proper communication and education regarding the process and purpose of stem cell research may bolster comprehension and garner more acceptance. “Given the sensitive subject material, a complete consent process can support voluntary participation through trust, understanding, and ethical norms from the cultures and morals participants value. This can be hard for researchers entering countries of different socioeconomic stability, with different languages and different societal values.[72] An adequate moral foundation in medical ethics is derived from the cultural and religious basis that informs knowledge and actions.[73] Understanding local cultural and religious values and their impact on research could help researchers develop humility and promote inclusion. IV. Concerns Some may argue that if researchers all adhere to one ethics standard, protection will be satisfied across all borders, and the global public will trust researchers. However, defining what needs to be protected and how to define such research standards is very specific to the people to which standards are applied. We suggest that applying one uniform guide cannot accurately protect each individual because we all possess our own perceptions and interpretations of social values.[74] Therefore, the issue of not adjusting to the moral pluralism between peoples in applying one standard of ethics can be resolved by building out ethics models that can be adapted to different cultures and religions. Other concerns include medical tourism, which may promote health inequities.[75] Some countries may develop and approve products derived from ESC research before others, compromising research ethics or drug approval processes. There are also concerns about the sale of unauthorized stem cell treatments, for example, those without FDA approval in the United States. Countries with robust research infrastructures may be tempted to attract medical tourists, and some customers will have false hopes based on aggressive publicity of unproven treatments.[76] For example, in China, stem cell clinics can market to foreign clients who are not protected under the regulatory regimes. Companies employ a marketing strategy of “ethically friendly” therapies. Specifically, in the case of Beike, China’s leading stem cell tourism company and sprouting network, ethical oversight of administrators or health bureaus at one site has “the unintended consequence of shifting questionable activities to another node in Beike's diffuse network.”[77] In contrast, Jordan is aware of stem cell research’s potential abuse and its own status as a “health-care hub.” Jordan’s expanded regulations include preserving the interests of individuals in clinical trials and banning private companies from ESC research to preserve transparency and the integrity of research practices.[78] The social priorities of the community are also a concern. The ISSCR explicitly states that guidelines “should be periodically revised to accommodate scientific advances, new challenges, and evolving social priorities.”[79] The adaptable ethics model extends this consideration further by addressing whether research is warranted given the varying degrees of socioeconomic conditions, political stability, and healthcare accessibilities and limitations. An ethical approach would require discussion about resource allocation and appropriate distribution of funds.[80] CONCLUSION While some religions emphasize the sanctity of life from conception, which may lead to public opposition to ESC research, others encourage ESC research due to its potential for healing and alleviating human pain. Many countries have special regulations that balance local views on embryonic personhood, the benefits of research as individual or societal goods, and the protection of human research subjects. To foster understanding and constructive dialogue, global policy frameworks should prioritize the protection of universal human rights, transparency, and informed consent. In addition to these foundational global policies, we recommend tailoring local guidelines to reflect the diverse cultural and religious perspectives of the populations they govern. Ethics models should be adapted to local populations to effectively establish research protections, growth, and possibilities of stem cell research. For example, in countries with strong beliefs in the moral sanctity of embryos or heavy religious restrictions, an adaptive model can allow for discussion instead of immediate rejection. In countries with limited individual rights and voice in science policy, an adaptive model ensures cultural, moral, and religious views are taken into consideration, thereby building social inclusion. While this ethical consideration by the government may not give a complete voice to every individual, it will help balance policies and maintain the diverse perspectives of those it affects. Embracing an adaptive ethics model of ESC research promotes open-minded dialogue and respect for the importance of human belief and tradition. By actively engaging with cultural and religious values, researchers can better handle disagreements and promote ethical research practices that benefit each society. This brief exploration of the religious and cultural differences that impact ESC research reveals the nuances of relative ethics and highlights a need for local policymakers to apply a more intense adaptive model. - [1] Poliwoda, S., Noor, N., Downs, E., Schaaf, A., Cantwell, A., Ganti, L., Kaye, A. D., Mosel, L. I., Carroll, C. B., Viswanath, O., & Urits, I. (2022). Stem cells: a comprehensive review of origins and emerging clinical roles in medical practice. 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International Society for Stem Cell Research. https://www.isscr.org/guidelines/blog-post-title-one-ed2td-6fcdk [5] Concerning the moral philosophies of stem cell research, our paper does not posit a personal moral stance nor delve into the “when” of human life begins. To read further about the philosophical debate, consider the following sources: Sandel M. J. (2004). Embryo ethics--the moral logic of stem-cell research. The New England journal of medicine, 351(3), 207–209. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp048145; George, R. P., & Lee, P. (2020, September 26). Acorns and Embryos. The New Atlantis. https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/acorns-and-embryos; Sagan, A., & Singer, P. (2007). The moral status of stem cells. Metaphilosophy, 38(2/3), 264–284. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24439776; McHugh P. R. (2004). Zygote and "clonote"--the ethical use of embryonic stem cells. 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[14] Jecker, N. S., & Atuire, C. (2021). Bioethics in Africa: A contextually enlightened analysis of three cases. Developing World Bioethics, 22(2), 112–122. https://doi.org/10.1111/dewb.12324 [15] Jecker, N. S., & Atuire, C. (2021). Bioethics in Africa: A contextually enlightened analysis of three cases. Developing World Bioethics, 22(2), 112–122. https://doi.org/10.1111/dewb.12324 [16] Jackson, C.S., Pepper, M.S. Opportunities and barriers to establishing a cell therapy programme in South Africa. Stem Cell Res Ther 4, 54 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1186/scrt204; Pew Research Center. (2014, May 1). Public health a major priority in African nations. Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2014/05/01/public-health-a-major-priority-in-african-nations/ [17] Department of Health Republic of South Africa. (2021). Health Research Priorities (revised) for South Africa 2021-2024. National Health Research Strategy. https://www.health.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/National-Health-Research-Priorities-2021-2024.pdf [18] Oosthuizen, H. (2013). Legal and Ethical Issues in Stem Cell Research in South Africa. In: Beran, R. (eds) Legal and Forensic Medicine. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32338-6_80, see also: Gaobotse G (2018) Stem Cell Research in Africa: Legislation and Challenges. J Regen Med 7:1. doi: 10.4172/2325-9620.1000142 [19] United States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. (1998). Tunisia: Information on the status of Christian conversions in Tunisia. UNHCR Web Archive. https://webarchive.archive.unhcr.org/20230522142618/https://www.refworld.org/docid/3df0be9a2.html [20] Gaobotse, G. (2018) Stem Cell Research in Africa: Legislation and Challenges. J Regen Med 7:1. doi: 10.4172/2325-9620.1000142 [21] Kooli, C. Review of assisted reproduction techniques, laws, and regulations in Muslim countries. Middle East Fertil Soc J 24, 8 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43043-019-0011-0; Gaobotse, G. (2018) Stem Cell Research in Africa: Legislation and Challenges. J Regen Med 7:1. doi: 10.4172/2325-9620.1000142 [22] Pang M. C. (1999). Protective truthfulness: the Chinese way of safeguarding patients in informed treatment decisions. Journal of medical ethics, 25(3), 247–253. https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.25.3.247 [23] Wang, L., Wang, F., & Zhang, W. (2021). Bioethics in China’s biosecurity law: Forms, effects, and unsettled issues. Journal of law and the biosciences, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsab019 https://academic.oup.com/jlb/article/8/1/lsab019/6299199 [24] Wang, Y., Xue, Y., & Guo, H. D. (2022). Intervention effects of traditional Chinese medicine on stem cell therapy of myocardial infarction. Frontiers in pharmacology, 13, 1013740. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2022.1013740 [25] Li, X.-T., & Zhao, J. (2012). Chapter 4: An Approach to the Nature of Qi in TCM- Qi and Bioenergy. In Recent Advances in Theories and Practice of Chinese Medicine (p. 79). InTech. [26] Luo, D., Xu, Z., Wang, Z., & Ran, W. (2021). China's Stem Cell Research and Knowledge Levels of Medical Practitioners and Students. Stem cells international, 2021, 6667743. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6667743 [27] Luo, D., Xu, Z., Wang, Z., & Ran, W. (2021). China's Stem Cell Research and Knowledge Levels of Medical Practitioners and Students. Stem cells international, 2021, 6667743. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6667743 [28] Zhang, J. Y. (2017). Lost in translation? accountability and governance of Clinical Stem Cell Research in China. Regenerative Medicine, 12(6), 647–656. https://doi.org/10.2217/rme-2017-0035 [29] Wang, L., Wang, F., & Zhang, W. (2021). Bioethics in China’s biosecurity law: Forms, effects, and unsettled issues. Journal of law and the biosciences, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsab019 https://academic.oup.com/jlb/article/8/1/lsab019/6299199 [30] Chen, H., Wei, T., Wang, H. et al. Association of China’s two-child policy with changes in number of births and birth defects rate, 2008–2017. BMC Public Health 22, 434 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-12839-0 [31] Azuma, K. Regulatory Landscape of Regenerative Medicine in Japan. Curr Stem Cell Rep 1, 118–128 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40778-015-0012-6 [32] Harris, R. (2005, May 19). Researchers Report Advance in Stem Cell Production. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2005/05/19/4658967/researchers-report-advance-in-stem-cell-production [33] Park, S. (2012). South Korea steps up stem-cell work. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2012.10565 [34] Resnik, D. B., Shamoo, A. E., & Krimsky, S. (2006). Fraudulent human embryonic stem cell research in South Korea: lessons learned. Accountability in research, 13(1), 101–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/08989620600634193. [35] Alahmad, G., Aljohani, S., & Najjar, M. F. (2020). Ethical challenges regarding the use of stem cells: interviews with researchers from Saudi Arabia. BMC medical ethics, 21(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00482-6 [36]Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies. https://www.aabb.org/regulatory-and-advocacy/regulatory-affairs/regulatory-for-cellular-therapies/international-competent-authorities/saudi-arabia [37] Alahmad, G., Aljohani, S., & Najjar, M. F. (2020). Ethical challenges regarding the use of stem cells: Interviews with researchers from Saudi Arabia. BMC medical ethics, 21(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00482-6 [38] Alahmad, G., Aljohani, S., & Najjar, M. F. (2020). Ethical challenges regarding the use of stem cells: Interviews with researchers from Saudi Arabia. BMC medical ethics, 21(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00482-6 Culturally, autonomy practices follow a relational autonomy approach based on a paternalistic deontological health care model. The adherence to strict international research policies and religious pillars within the regulatory environment is a great foundation for research ethics. However, there is a need to develop locally targeted ethics approaches for research (as called for in Alahmad, G., Aljohani, S., & Najjar, M. F. (2020). Ethical challenges regarding the use of stem cells: interviews with researchers from Saudi Arabia. BMC medical ethics, 21(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-020-00482-6), this decision-making approach may help advise a research decision model. For more on the clinical cultural autonomy approaches, see: Alabdullah, Y. Y., Alzaid, E., Alsaad, S., Alamri, T., Alolayan, S. W., Bah, S., & Aljoudi, A. S. (2022). Autonomy and paternalism in Shared decision‐making in a Saudi Arabian tertiary hospital: A cross‐sectional study. Developing World Bioethics, 23(3), 260–268. https://doi.org/10.1111/dewb.12355; Bukhari, A. A. (2017). Universal Principles of Bioethics and Patient Rights in Saudi Arabia (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/124; Ladha, S., Nakshawani, S. A., Alzaidy, A., & Tarab, B. (2023, October 26). Islam and Bioethics: What We All Need to Know. Columbia University School of Professional Studies. https://sps.columbia.edu/events/islam-and-bioethics-what-we-all-need-know [39] Ababneh, M. A., Al-Azzam, S. I., Alzoubi, K., Rababa’h, A., & Al Demour, S. (2021). Understanding and attitudes of the Jordanian public about clinical research ethics. Research Ethics, 17(2), 228-241. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016120966779 [40] Ababneh, M. A., Al-Azzam, S. I., Alzoubi, K., Rababa’h, A., & Al Demour, S. (2021). Understanding and attitudes of the Jordanian public about clinical research ethics. Research Ethics, 17(2), 228-241. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016120966779 [41] Dajani, R. (2014). Jordan’s stem-cell law can guide the Middle East. Nature 510, 189. https://doi.org/10.1038/510189a [42] Dajani, R. (2014). Jordan’s stem-cell law can guide the Middle East. Nature 510, 189. https://doi.org/10.1038/510189a [43] The EU’s definition of autonomy relates to the capacity for creating ideas, moral insight, decisions, and actions without constraint, personal responsibility, and informed consent. However, the EU views autonomy as not completely able to protect individuals and depends on other principles, such as dignity, which “expresses the intrinsic worth and fundamental equality of all human beings.” Rendtorff, J.D., Kemp, P. (2019). Four Ethical Principles in European Bioethics and Biolaw: Autonomy, Dignity, Integrity and Vulnerability. In: Valdés, E., Lecaros, J. (eds) Biolaw and Policy in the Twenty-First Century. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine, vol 78. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05903-3_3 [44] Council of Europe. Convention for the protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (ETS No. 164) https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list?module=treaty-detail&treatynum=164 (forbidding the creation of embryos for research purposes only, and suggests embryos in vitro have protections.); Also see Drabiak-Syed B. K. (2013). New President, New Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Policy: Comparative International Perspectives and Embryonic Stem Cell Research Laws in France. Biotechnology Law Report, 32(6), 349–356. https://doi.org/10.1089/blr.2013.9865 [45] Rendtorff, J.D., Kemp, P. (2019). Four Ethical Principles in European Bioethics and Biolaw: Autonomy, Dignity, Integrity and Vulnerability. In: Valdés, E., Lecaros, J. (eds) Biolaw and Policy in the Twenty-First Century. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine, vol 78. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05903-3_3 [46] Tomuschat, C., Currie, D. P., Kommers, D. P., & Kerr, R. (Trans.). (1949, May 23). Basic law for the Federal Republic of Germany. https://www.btg-bestellservice.de/pdf/80201000.pdf [47] Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Germany. Eurostemcell. (2017, April 26). https://www.eurostemcell.org/regulation-stem-cell-research-germany [48] Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Finland. Eurostemcell. (2017, April 26). https://www.eurostemcell.org/regulation-stem-cell-research-finland [49] Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Spain. Eurostemcell. (2017, April 26). https://www.eurostemcell.org/regulation-stem-cell-research-spain [50] Some sources to consider regarding ethics models or regulatory oversights of other cultures not covered: Kara MA. Applicability of the principle of respect for autonomy: the perspective of Turkey. J Med Ethics. 2007 Nov;33(11):627-30. doi: 10.1136/jme.2006.017400. PMID: 17971462; PMCID: PMC2598110. Ugarte, O. N., & Acioly, M. A. (2014). The principle of autonomy in Brazil: one needs to discuss it ... Revista do Colegio Brasileiro de Cirurgioes, 41(5), 374–377. https://doi.org/10.1590/0100-69912014005013 Bharadwaj, A., & Glasner, P. E. (2012). Local cells, global science: The rise of embryonic stem cell research in India. Routledge. For further research on specific European countries regarding ethical and regulatory framework, we recommend this database: Regulation of Stem Cell Research in Europe. Eurostemcell. (2017, April 26). https://www.eurostemcell.org/regulation-stem-cell-research-europe [51] Klitzman, R. (2006). Complications of culture in obtaining informed consent. The American Journal of Bioethics, 6(1), 20–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265160500394671 see also: Ekmekci, P. E., & Arda, B. (2017). Interculturalism and Informed Consent: Respecting Cultural Differences without Breaching Human Rights. Cultura (Iasi, Romania), 14(2), 159–172.; For why trust is important in research, see also: Gray, B., Hilder, J., Macdonald, L., Tester, R., Dowell, A., & Stubbe, M. (2017). Are research ethics guidelines culturally competent? Research Ethics, 13(1), 23-41. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016116650235 [52] The Qur'an (M. Khattab, Trans.). (1965). Al-Mu’minun, 23: 12-14. https://quran.com/23 [53] Lenfest, Y. (2017, December 8). Islam and the beginning of human life. Bill of Health. https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2017/12/08/islam-and-the-beginning-of-human-life/ [54] Aksoy, S. (2005). Making regulations and drawing up legislation in Islamic countries under conditions of uncertainty, with special reference to embryonic stem cell research. Journal of Medical Ethics, 31:399-403.; see also: Mahmoud, Azza. "Islamic Bioethics: National Regulations and Guidelines of Human Stem Cell Research in the Muslim World." Master's thesis, Chapman University, 2022. https://doi.org/10.36837/ chapman.000386 [55] Rashid, R. (2022). When does Ensoulment occur in the Human Foetus. Journal of the British Islamic Medical Association, 12(4). ISSN 2634 8071. https://www.jbima.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2-Ethics-3_-Ensoulment_Rafaqat.pdf. [56] Sivaraman, M. & Noor, S. (2017). Ethics of embryonic stem cell research according to Buddhist, Hindu, Catholic, and Islamic religions: perspective from Malaysia. Asian Biomedicine,8(1) 43-52. https://doi.org/10.5372/1905-7415.0801.260 [57] Jafari, M., Elahi, F., Ozyurt, S. & Wrigley, T. (2007). 4. Religious Perspectives on Embryonic Stem Cell Research. In K. Monroe, R. Miller & J. Tobis (Ed.), Fundamentals of the Stem Cell Debate: The Scientific, Religious, Ethical, and Political Issues (pp. 79-94). Berkeley: University of California Press. https://escholarship.org/content/qt9rj0k7s3/qt9rj0k7s3_noSplash_f9aca2e02c3777c7fb76ea768ba458f0.pdf https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520940994-005 [58] Lecso, P. A. (1991). The Bodhisattva Ideal and Organ Transplantation. Journal of Religion and Health, 30(1), 35–41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27510629; Bodhisattva, S. (n.d.). The Key of Becoming a Bodhisattva. A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life. http://www.buddhism.org/Sutras/2/BodhisattvaWay.htm [59] There is no explicit religious reference to when life begins or how to conduct research that interacts with the concept of life. However, these are relevant verses pertaining to how the fetus is viewed. ((King James Bible. (1999). Oxford University Press. (original work published 1769)) Jerimiah 1: 5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee…” In prophet Jerimiah’s insight, God set him apart as a person known before childbirth, a theme carried within the Psalm of David. Psalm 139: 13-14 “…Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” These verses demonstrate David’s respect for God as an entity that would know of all man’s thoughts and doings even before birth. [60] It should be noted that abortion is not supported as well. [61] The Vatican. (1987, February 22). Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation Replies to Certain Questions of the Day. Congregation For the Doctrine of the Faith. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19870222_respect-for-human-life_en.html [62] The Vatican. (2000, August 25). Declaration On the Production and the Scientific and Therapeutic Use of Human Embryonic Stem Cells. Pontifical Academy for Life. https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_academies/acdlife/documents/rc_pa_acdlife_doc_20000824_cellule-staminali_en.html; Ohara, N. (2003). Ethical Consideration of Experimentation Using Living Human Embryos: The Catholic Church’s Position on Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Human Cloning. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Retrieved from https://article.imrpress.com/journal/CEOG/30/2-3/pii/2003018/77-81.pdf. [63] Smith, G. A. (2022, May 23). Like Americans overall, Catholics vary in their abortion views, with regular mass attenders most opposed. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/05/23/like-americans-overall-catholics-vary-in-their-abortion-views-with-regular-mass-attenders-most-opposed/ [64] Rosner, F., & Reichman, E. (2002). Embryonic stem cell research in Jewish law. Journal of halacha and contemporary society, (43), 49–68.; Jafari, M., Elahi, F., Ozyurt, S. & Wrigley, T. (2007). 4. Religious Perspectives on Embryonic Stem Cell Research. In K. Monroe, R. Miller & J. Tobis (Ed.), Fundamentals of the Stem Cell Debate: The Scientific, Religious, Ethical, and Political Issues (pp. 79-94). Berkeley: University of California Press. https://escholarship.org/content/qt9rj0k7s3/qt9rj0k7s3_noSplash_f9aca2e02c3777c7fb76ea768ba458f0.pdf https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520940994-005 [65] Schenker J. G. (2008). The beginning of human life: status of embryo. Perspectives in Halakha (Jewish Religious Law). Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics, 25(6), 271–276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-008-9221-6 [66] Ruttenberg, D. (2020, May 5). The Torah of Abortion Justice (annotated source sheet). Sefaria. https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/234926.7?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en [67] Jafari, M., Elahi, F., Ozyurt, S. & Wrigley, T. (2007). 4. 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