Product Makers Research Articles

Recent Regulatory Developments in Australia's Gaming and Wagering Industries

Responsibility for the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 was transferred to the Federal Department of Communication, Information Technology and the Arts from the National Office for the Information Economy, effective in June 2002. The federal government was expected to turn its attention to the issue of the use of credit cards on online gambling sites, and it was suggested that the government might make regulations under section 69A of the Interactive Gambling Act. While no such regulations or proposals for such regulations have yet been made, the statutory review of interactive gambling due in 2003 may well result in the regulation of credit card use on online gambling sites. The Australian Broadcasting Authority’s complaints scheme for Internet gambling content came into effect in January 2002. In the first six months of its operation, the ABA’s complaints scheme received ten complaints about Internet gambling content. Eight investigations were completed, with two investigations terminated because of a lack of information. Of the eight investigations, six resulted in location of prohibited content outside Australia and the ABA notified the makers of filter software products of the details of the content in accordance with the code of practice. Of the two investigations relating to Australian-hosted content, the ABA was satisfied that referral to the Australian Federal Police was not required. A CSIRO report on the performance of Internet filters was released in March 2002. Tasmania continued to promote itself as one of the world’s most competitive gaming jurisdictions with the release of, Tasmania, the Intelligent Choice for Internet Gaming, in March 2002, highlighting the competitiveness of its Internet gaming tax rate of 4% of gross profits as the lowest in Australia.

Common Disinfectants May Slow SARS

with the identification of a coronavirus as the causative agent behind severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) still offer largely commonsense guidelines for controlling infection. Coronaviruses can survive in the environment for up to three hours, CDC says. It recommends frequent hand washing or alcohol-based hand rubs, frequent use of common household cleaners for disinfecting surfaces, and disposable gloves and masks for patients or patient care. Cleaning products maker JohnsonDiversey notes that while no specific products have been tested against SARS, it offers many EPA-registered quaternary ammonium germicide products that kill similar viruses. Antec International says its EPA-approved Virkon disinfectant—a potassium persulfate oxidizer used against the Norwalk virus and foot-and-mouth disease—has been proven to work against Coronaviridae . The company says Chinese authorities have come to it for help. ...

FDA approves new hormone-based contraceptive

Women who are tired of taking the contraceptive pill every day might soon have an alternative. The FDA recently approved a device called NuvaRing, a flexible ring of approximately three inches in diameter that releases estrogen and progestin. The ring is inserted into the vagina at a specific point in the menstrual cycle and remains in place for 21 days. The FDA considered that the product had the same effectiveness, and the same risks and side-effects as oral contraceptives. Organon, the product's maker, plans to start marketing the NuvaRing in mid-2002. AB

Palladium-Catalyzed Reppe Carbonylation

PdX2L2/L/HA (A = weakly coordinating anion, L = phosphine) complexes are active catalysts in the hydroesterification of alkenes, alkynes, and conjugated dienes. Shell, the only major corporate player in the field, recently developed two very active catalyst systems tailored to the hydroesterification of either alkenes or alkynes. The hydroesterification of propyne with their Pd(OAc)2/PN/HA (PN = (2-pyridyl)diphenylphosphine, HA = strong acid with weakly coordinating anion, like methanesulfonic acid) catalyst has been declared commercially ready. However, despite the significant progress in the activity of Pd-hydroesterification catalysts, further improvements are warranted. Thus, for example, activity maintenance still seems to be an issue. Homogeneous Pd catalysts are prone to a number of deactivation reactions. Activity and stability promoters are often corrosive and add to the complexity of the system, making it less attractive. Nonetheless, the versatility of the process and its tolerance toward the functional groups of substrates should appeal especially to the makers of specialty products. Although hydroesterification yields esters from alkenes, alkynes, and dienes in fewer steps than hydroformylation does, the latter has some advantages at the current state of the art. (1) Hydroformylation catalysts, particularly some recently published phosphine-modified Rh systems, can achieve very high regioselectivity for the linear product that hydroesterification catalysts cannot match yet. By analogy with hydroformylation, bulkier ligands ought to be tested in hydroesterification to increase normal-ester selectivity. (2) Hydroformylation is proven, commercial. Hydroesterification can only replace it if it can provide significant economic incentives. Similar or just marginally better performance could not justify the cost of development of a new technology. (3) Hydroesterification requires pure CO while hydroformylation uses syngas, a mixture of CO and H2. The latter is typically more available and less expensive (for industrial applications CO is most often separated from syngas). (4) The acid component of the hydroesterification catalyst makes the process corrosive. It would be desirable to develop new hydroesterification catalysts that do not require acid stabilizer/activity booster. Clearly, any new hydroesterification technology will directly compete with the hydroformylation route. This is especially true for olefin feeds, since both processes add one CO to the olefin, yielding oxygenates that can be converted into identical products. For some niche applications, like the production of MMA from propyne, hydroesterification seems to have an advantage as compared to hydroformylation due to the high activity and selectivity of the Pd(OAc)2/(2-pyridyl)diphenylphosphine catalyst. Since hydroesterification is an emerging technology, it is reasonable to assume that the potential for improvement is greater than in the mature hydroformylation. It is therefore possible that hydroesterification will become competitive in the future; thus, continued effort in the field is warranted.

The Pursuit of Perfection: A Narrative Analysis of How Women's Magazines Cover Eating Disorders

Narrative analysis was used to explore the dominant themes in the 47 feature articles on eating disorders that have appeared in women's magazines since 1980, when eating disorders found a regular spot on the public's agenda. The "metastory" that emerges from these articles can be characterized thusly: Victims suffer alone, trapped by their selfishness and perfectionism, while stunned family members and peers stand by, watching as the disease suddenly takes hold. In later stages of the narrative, writers blame the media for the increase in the number of cases of eating disorders. The narrative presents a distorted picture of what life is like for the victim of an eating disorder. It also offers a distorted picture of what goes on outside the discourse of dieting−outside the symbiotic relationship between food companies and diet product makers carried out in the pages of women's magazines. Treating eating disorders as aberration allows the editor to deal with a serious problem while at the same time sustaining a discourse that contributes to the problem. Women's magazines acknowledge the severity of the problem, but make it seem like it takes place outside the realm of consumerism.

Industry readjustment to deter substrate investment?

For a period starting last year until just recently crystal product makers had never had it so good. Historically, the industry has always been characterized by a mismatch of supply and demand, but last year the tables were turned - the wafer manufactures were experiencing a shortfall in capacity, especially for certain wafer sizes, and were able to sell everything they could make. However, this year the situation is back to normal; supply outstrips demand so suppliers are cautions about investing in capacity again.

Transforming Taiwan's Economic Structure in the 20th Century

This article analyses Taiwan's economic changes that have occurred from the Japanese colonization of Taiwan in 1895 to the recent Asian financial crisis, focusing on the interplay between policy and structure. Pre-colonial Taiwan was a frontier society with a settlement economy, primarily subsistence-based, and with a thin state structure, politically barely governed by the Qing dynasty. Under Japanese rule, Taiwan was turned into an essentially open economy and an agrarian base of the Japanese Empire. In the post-Second World War era, the Taiwanese economy under the Nationalist regime was briefly turned inward for import substitution industrialization, but rapidly transformed into one based on industrial exports in labour-intensive sectors, and increasingly on modern services as well. By the end of the century, Taiwan had already become the world's third largest maker of information technology products, behind the United States and Japan. The permutation of ownership structure was equally drastic. Dominant Japanese capital in the pre-war era became omnipresent state capital in the immediate post-war era. Subsequently, however, indigenous private capital overwhelmed the industrial sector and, towards the end of the century, made inroads in the financial sector as well.

THE FIX IS IN: CARTELS BEWARE

News Analysis The business of business is about making money. But when the competition gets tough, companies or their agents just may decide to form price-fixing cartels to ensure profits under otherwise trying business conditions. Never mind the ethical dilemma that fixing prices behind closed doors poses for the companies or their agents in cahoots. All is fair, some say, in love and war. And the evidence is in, according to U.S. Justice Department data, to suggest that a number of chemical product makers have resorted to price fixing. The list of companies includes BASF, Roche, Eastman Chemical, Akzo Nobel, ICI, and Dyno Nobel. But the fact of the matter is that, while some may benefit from price fixing, others do not. Wherever higher prices prevail because of secret arrangements, consumers end up paying higher prices than they otherwise would. It's not just that those who pay higher prices resent being forced to do ...

市販振動加速度ピックアップの位相特性

In recent vibration and acceleration pickup applications, for example in modal analysis, active control of vibration isolation, and inertial navigation, the phase shift evaluation of pickup has become important. However, the frequency-phase characteristics of the pickup has not been reported quantitatively from the production makers in the past. In this report, the phase shift evaluation results of three types (piezoelectric-type, servo-type and capacitance-type) of commercially available vibration and acceleration pickups are presented. The evaluations were performed using the sine-approximation method, which will be adopted in the updated ISO standards. The phase shift and the uncertainty of each pickup have been elucidated. Expanded uncertainties of less than ±6×10-3 rad in phase shift evaluation at 5 kHz have been obtained. Three piezoelectric type pickups manufactured by different makers are also evaluated and compared. We observed a phase shift difference of up to 4×10-2 rad in each sensor.

Developing internet e-commerce benchmarks

A benchmark is a standard for measuring and comparing the performance of like systems. For new product makers, a benchmark can provide important statistical information so products can be fine-tuned before their deployment. For end users, on the other hand, a benchmark can be used to compare the strengths and weaknesses of different products so that an informed decision can be made about system adoption. Benchmarks aid in estimations of scalability in terms of the number of users and/or transactions that a system can support, and system response times under various loads and hardware/software deployment platforms. This paper focuses on the design issues in developing benchmarks for e-commerce. Because of the multidisciplinary aspects of e-commerce and the various emerging and distinct e-commerce business models, creating a single benchmark for the e-commerce application is not feasible. Add to this the diverse needs of small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and big business and we motivate the need for a benchmark suite for e-commerce. It is the thesis of this paper that the business model plays the primary role in the development of a e-commerce benchmark. It is the business that determines processes and transactions and thus also the database and navigational designs. For illustrative purposes, we step through the design of an e-commerce benchmark specification, WebEC, based on a e-broker (cybermediary) Internet business model. An example implementation of the benchmark specification, based on Microsoft's COM technology, and sample benchmark results are also presented.

Occupational risk factors for breast cancer among women in Shanghai.

Although female breast cancer rates are lower in China than in Western countries, rates have been rising rapidly in China. This increase may be due to changes in established breast cancer risk factors, but it is possible that exposure to occupational and environmental carcinogens in Shanghai also have contributed to the rise in incidence. We used data collected by the Shanghai Cancer Registry and the Chinese Third National Census to study the risk of breast cancer by occupation and by occupational exposures. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were used to compare observed cases to expected numbers of cases, based on the incidence rates for Shanghai and the number of women in each occupation according to the 1982 census. Statistically elevated SIRs for breast cancer were seen for a number of professional occupational categories, with the greatest risk seen among scientific research workers (SIR = 3.3). Administrative clerks, political and security personnel, and makers of rubber and plastics products also had significant excesses. Significant deficits of risk were seen for the categories of production and related workers, construction workers, and transportation equipment operators. For specific occupations, the highest SIRs were observed among doctors of Chinese-Western medicine (SIR = 14.7, 95% CI = 5.9-30.3) and doctors of Chinese medicine (SIR = 7.2, 95% CI = 4.4-11.4). We also found excesses among teachers at each level of education, librarians, clerical workers, electrical and electronic engineers, nurses, lab technicians, accountants and bookkeepers, rubber manufacturing products makers, weavers, and knitters. SIRs were significantly elevated for high probability of exposure to organic solvents (SIR = 1.4). For benzene exposure, we found significant excesses for overall exposure (SIR = 1.1) and for medium level of exposure (SIR = 1.3). There was no evidence of an association between risk and electromagnetic fields (EMF) exposure. Based on a small number of exposed, SIRs were elevated for both medium probability and high level of exposure to pesticides. The elevations in occupations reported here support some previous reports. Our finding of an increased risk associated with benzene also has been reported previously; the finding for organic solvents is new. However, the literature on the risk of breast cancer related to occupational exposures is limited and there is no consistent body of literature for any of the exposures studied here. Further, many comparisons were made and the problem of multiple hypothesis testing cannot be ignored in a survey such as ours.

Cohort mortality study of rubber and plastics product makers in Italy.

A retrospective cohort mortality study was carried out in 20 industrial factories in the Local Health Unit Bologna Sud (Emilia Romagna, Italy), where different rubber and plastics products were manufactured. The cohort consisted of 925 subjects (578 males and 347 females) employed for at least six months continuously; follow-up was between the beginning of operation of each factory, ranging between mid fifties and mid seventies, and 31 December 1989. For those exposed more than one year cause specific Standardized Mortality Ratios (SMRs) were computed using regional rates for comparison, 90% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated assuming the Poisson distribution. Among the 748 subjects employed for more than one year (457 males and 291 females) there were no lost to follow-up, 54 individuals were dead (41 males and 13 females) and for three subjects the cause of death was unknown. The results showed that all causes mortality was above expectancy in the total cohort (SMR = 123; 54 Obs; 90% CI = 97-154), among males (SMR = 117; 41 Obs; 90% CI = 89-152) and females (SMR = 143; 13 Obs; 90% CI = 85-228). Increased mortality for all malignant tumours was observed in the total cohort (SMR = 150; 25 Obs; 90% CI = 104-209) and for both genders. All nine lung cancer cases were observed among males, the SMR was equal to 218 and was statistically significant; seven cases occurred at duration of exposure less than 10 years and six at latency up to 20 years. The interpretation in terms of causality of the present investigation is limited by the small number of observations and by exposure definition solely in terms of employment in the study factories; nonetheless the results are indicating the existence, in this group of rubber and plastics product makers, of an adverse health effect which deserve further investigation.

ASBESTOS CLASS ACTION SUIT

Questioning the legitimacy of class-action suits, a federal appeals court has struck down a proposed $1.3 billion settlement between 20 asbestos product makers and at least 250,000 people claiming asbestos- related illnesses. The court decided each plaintiffs claims raise radically different factual and legal issues from those of other plaintiffs. Plaintiffs7 attorneys who negotiated the settlement and the Center for Claims Resolution, Princeton, N.J.— which represents the asbestos product makers—plan to appeal the ruling. The landmark decision raises doubts about the viability of other class-action suits, particularly those affecting breast implant recipients, cigarette smokers, and toxic tort claimants. An appeal to the Supreme Court or an act of Congress may ultimately be the only way to clarify how the legal system ought to handle complex class-action suits involving hundreds of thousands of potential claimants. In 1993, many plaintiffs reached a proposed asbestos settlement with the 20 companies, i...

Utility of a surveillance system to detect associations between work and cancer among women in Canada, 1965-1991.

Data on the occupation and industry in which 242,196 females worked in Canada between 1965 and 1971 are available from a national survey of employers by Statistics Canada. As an example of the future utility of this cohort, computerized record linkage was conducted with the Canadian National Mortality Data Base through 1979. This article presents selected results. Associations are measured by standardized relative risks. Those meeting specific criteria (two or more observed deaths, relative risk > 2.0, and 95% confidence interval excluding 1.00) include (a) buccal cavity and pharyngeal cancer among mechanics and repairers, tobacco preparers and product makers, and telephone systems industry workers; (b) lung cancer among service station attendants, motor vehicle mechanics, and petroleum refinery workers; and (c) breast cancer among workers manufacturing electrical industrial equipment and printing and publishing industry workers. The mortality experience of the cohort through 1991 is currently being determined by another record linkage, thus providing up to 25 years of follow-up and over 8,500 cancer deaths anticipated among females.

Baxter to reorganize, cut 7% of work force

Baxter International, the giant marketer and maker of health care products, last week announced a massive, costly reorganization that is expected to eliminate 4,500 jobs. Under the program, the Deerfield, Ill.-based company will reorganize sales and distribution operations—largely in its troubled hospital supply business—and exit certain, as yet unnamed, nonstrategic product lines in other businesses. Overall, Baxter will reduce its worldwide work force about 7% through attrition and staff reduction over the next five years. To cover reorganization costs, Baxter will take a $700 million pretax charge against earnings in the fourth quarter, it also will take a $225 million charge to cover future litigation costs, primarily associated with breast implants and HIVinfected blood-clotting concentrates. It expects to reap annual savings from the reorganization of about $100 million in 1994, $275 million in 1996, and more than $350 million in 1998. Baxter is a major, diversified supplier of health care products,...

Chemed agrees to sell DuBois chemical unit

For all intents and purposes, Chemed will soon be out of the chemical business. Last week, the Cincinnati-based maker of specialty cleaning products and systems said it has entered into a definitiv...

Systematic synthesis devised for oligosiloxanes

A strategy for syntheses of linear and branched oligosiloxanes of precisely defined structure has been devised by a team of chemists in the U.S. and Japan [J. Am. Chem. Soc, 112, 7077 (1990)]. Though most of the reactions are already known, this is the first time that chemists have combined them selectively to make rationally designed inorganic structures. The first demonstration of the synthetic strategy is syntheses of dendrimer (highly branched) molecules (C&EN, Feb. 22,1988, page 19). This shows that the method can serve to explore inorganic macromolecular architecture. On this side of the Pacific, participants were organic chemistry professor Satoru Masamune and postdoctoral fellow Takeshi Tsumuraya at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, supported by the National Science Foundation. Japanese collaborators were chemists Hiroaki Uchida, Yoshio Kabe, Koji Yoshino, and Akira Kawamata at household products maker Kao Corp., Tochigi. Kabe is now a faculty member at Tsukuba University, Ibaraki. The synthe...

Urinary excretion rate of methylguanidine as a new maker of active oxygen in vivo: demonstration in hyperbaric oxygen therapy

Methylguanidine (MG) which is known as a uremic toxin, is synthesized from creatinine (Cre). We have clarified that active oxygen plays an important role on MG synthesis in vitro and in rat hepatocytes. On the other hand, hyperoxia is very injurious in various tissues, and it has been reported that active oxygen produced in hyperoxia plays an important role on the tissue injury. This study was performed to investigate the effect of hyperoxia on MG synthesis in vivo. The subjects in this study were patients who were treated by hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO). Serum Cre, MG, and urinary Cre, MG before and after HBO were measured in these subjects. The subjects were classified into four groups. Group I-III were undergone HBO with condition of 100% O2, 2 atmosphere absolute (ATA), 1 hour, (I: Ccr less than 10 ml/min, II: 10 less than or equal to Ccr less than 50 ml/min, III: Ccr greater than or equal to 50 ml/min) and group IV (Ccr greater than or equal to 50 ml/min) with 100%O2, 3ATA, 1 hour. Urinary excretion rate of MG (urine MG/urine Cre) significantly increased after HBO therapy in every group. Urine MG/urine Cre/serum Cre ratio which was used as a index of MG synthesis rate also increased. In this study, it is clarified that MG excretion rate increases in hyperoxic condition. These results suggest that active oxygen plays an important role on MG synthesis in vivo, and that the urine MG/urine Cre/serum Cre ratio can be a useful maker of the active oxygen products in vivo.

“Ultimate Gelatin” asked by Photosensitive Products Maker

“Ultimate Gelatin” asked by Photosensitive Products Maker

A discussion on building technology in the 1980s - Defining new materials for the 1980s

The author’s point of departure is that building today is the early architecture of the age of science. It increasingly uses scientific methods and technologies of science. Consequently there are many pressures and necessities to innovate, but resistances exist in the form of inertia of the industry, the educational deficiencies of the professions and constructors, the demanding conditions for trouble-free design and construction, and the penalties now consequent upon trouble. In order to open the way for safe innovation there has been a shift towards regulation by performance criteria in place of the former definition by specific requirements; and in order to assess performance in advance of experience, a systematic evaluation is now available. The existence of these two developments has been made possible by the growth of building science, and they in turn define the monitoring and feed-back of experience as important functions of building research for the future. There is a need and capability developing to analyse building problems with increasing precision in several directions, and the process often defines new needs for materials and techniques. This is a centreto-periphery process, and the reverse also takes place, where product makers thrust into the market innovations which result from some matching of fresh ideas to apparent needs. In all cases the needs are defined consciously or unconsciously from the context of the subsystem within which the product or component will function. Buildings are always systems comprising many subsystems. Examples are then given of directions in which the author foresees needs for new developments being defined.