Stand-alone Products Research Articles

Risky business? Shareholder value effects of service provision

Business model innovation by manufacturing firms, through the addition of services to the core product offerings, has been steadily on the rise. However, this can pose risks for the firms’ long-term viability and profitability. Here, we examine the short-term financial effects of the sale of different product-service combinations. We use the event study methodology to investigate the stock market reaction to 1025 new contract announcements by 41 large manufacturers from 1987 to 2016.679 of these announcements involve the sale of standalone products, while the remaining 346 are product-service deals which we classify as low-, medium- or high-risk depending on whether they involve the provision of product-oriented (or smoothing) services, use-oriented and adapting services, and result-oriented (or substituting) services, respectively. Our results indicate that equity investors react positively to announcements of low-risk service deals and pure product sales. In contrast, we do not find an overall significant market reaction to announcements of medium- and high-risk service deals, suggesting that shareholders are not generally confident in the value creating potential of these types of services. However, post-hoc analysis suggests that the abnormal returns to service deals are affected by both firm-specific (financial leverage and service infusion level) and contract-specific (duration and value) factors. We explain these findings by considering the complexities characterizing these types of services and the general lack of transparency in the agreed terms and pricing of service contracts.

INTEGRATED LPVT's IN EACH FUNCTIONAL UNIT FOR SIMPLER PROTECTION AND CONTROL

In Medium Voltage (MV) electrical power distribution systems, transition from conventional Voltage Transformers (VTs) to Low Power Voltage Transformers (LPVTs) is in progress. The LPVTs are based on resistive or capacitive divider and have been implemented as stand-alone products for metering and protection applications. VTs or LPVTs are installed in a switchgear and their outputs are shared among all the other electronics installed in the switchboard, it is a centralized architecture. The LPVTs output can be broadcasted by analog or digital approaches. The improvements in design and manufacturing of LPVTs and the evolutions of IEC standards aim at enhancing an evolution for voltage measurement architecture: from centralized to distributed or integrated architecture. LPVTs can be embedded in existing components, such as insulators or bushings, thus LPVTs can be installed in each switchgear. An innovative, simpler, and more robust distributed architecture is proposed in this paper to perform protection and control inside MV switchgears, without LPVT signal broadcasting

Integration and appropriability: A study of process and product components within a firm's innovation portfolio

AbstractResearch SummaryWe examine how and when integration of process and product components within a firm's innovation portfolio increases firm returns. Strategy literature argues that integration enhances the firm's appropriation of returns from innovations. We evaluate this argument recognizing that integration is but one of multiple appropriation tools; firms can also use other (e.g., scale‐based) mechanisms to enhance appropriation. Using new measures of integration based on textual coding of patent claims, we demonstrate that while higher process–product integration improves firm performance, this effect diminishes when the firm has greater production capacity or access to markets. Further, high integration lowers innovative productivity. Together, these demonstrations explain why firms, even with awareness of the benefits of integration between components, may not all choose high‐integration strategies.Managerial SummaryHow should a manager design, structure, and organize the firm's innovation portfolio—as a collection of separate standalone process and product innovations, or a set of innovations each containing both new process and product attributes? Using data from the global chemicals industry and new textual‐coding‐based measures, we demonstrate that the latter helps the firm appropriate returns to its innovations by making it harder for others to understand and replicate its innovations, but that it comes with a tradeoff of lower innovative productivity. We stress that latter approach is less useful when the firm has other scale‐based tools in place, that enhance appropriation as well, such as large production capacity or reach to markets.

The Power of Brand Selfies

Smartphones have made it nearly effortless to share images of branded experiences. This research classifies social media brand imagery and studies user response. Aside from packshots (standalone product images), two types of brand-related selfie images appear online: consumer selfies (featuring brands and consumers’ faces) and an emerging phenomenon the authors term “brand selfies” (invisible consumers holding a branded product). The authors use convolutional neural networks to identify these archetypes and train language models to infer social media response to more than a quarter-million brand-image posts (185 brands on Twitter and Instagram). They find that consumer-selfie images receive more sender engagement (i.e., likes and comments), whereas brand selfies result in more brand engagement, expressed by purchase intentions. These results cast doubt on whether conventional social media metrics are appropriate indicators of brand engagement. Results for display ads are consistent with this observation, with higher click-through rates for brand selfies than for consumer selfies. A controlled lab experiment suggests that self-reference is driving the differential response to selfie images. Collectively, these results demonstrate how (interpretable) machine learning helps extract marketing-relevant information from unstructured multimedia content and that selfie images are a matter of perspective in terms of actual brand engagement.

Oral Delivery of Encapsulated All-Trans Retinoic Acid Ameliorates Disease in Rodent Models of Colitis.

All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) is a biologically active isomer of retinoic acid (RA). Topical ATRA (retin-a, retin-a micro, atralin, renova, and avita) is the active pharmaceutical ingredient for FDA-approved treatments for acne and skin wrinkles. Oral formulations (Vesanoid) treat acute promyelocytic leukemia, but oral dosing can induce severe side effects. Despite benefits in various rodent models of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), toxicity and controversial clinical observations have diminished enthusiasm for ATRA IBD clinical trials. To circumvent these issues and to use ATRA's key role in maintaining gut tolerance, we developed a poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microsphere (MS) encapsulated ATRA formulation aimed at directing ATRA delivery to immune structures of the gut, limiting systemic exposure. Initially, ATRA MS was developed as a component of a combinatorial product (TreXTAM) that also contained encapsulated transforming growth factor (TGF)-β and ATRA in a 1:2 w/w ratio. Although the combination was optimal, benefit was also observed when ATRA MS was given alone in the CD4+ CD25-T-cell adoptive transfer (ACT) colitis model. We used the ACT and DSS-induced murine models of colitis to expand on the dose-dependent effects of oral ATRA MS when given alone. The DSS model was also used to compare the efficacy of ATRA MS and soluble ATRA, while healthy animals were used to compare the pharmacokinetics of the two drugs. In both the ACT and DSS-induced murine models of colitis, ATRA MS was observed to be effective in ameliorating disease. ATRA MS was also observed to be more effective than soluble ATRA in these models and displayed more favorable pharmacokinetics. We suggest ATRA MS, as a standalone product, may attenuate IBD and perhaps limit fibrosis, while limiting systemic side effects.

QPX7728, An Ultra-Broad-Spectrum B-Lactamase Inhibitor for Intravenous and Oral Therapy: Overview of Biochemical and Microbiological Characteristics.

QPX7728 is a novel β-lactamase inhibitor (BLI) that belongs to a class of cyclic boronates. The first member of this class, vaborbactam, is a BLI in the recently approved Vabomere (meropenem-vaborbactam). In this paper we provide the overview of the biochemical, structural and microbiological studies that were recently conducted with QPX7728. We show that QPX7728 is an ultra-broad-spectrum β-lactamase inhibitor with the broadest spectrum of inhibition reported to date in a single BLI molecule; in addition to potent inhibition of clinically important serine β-lactamases, including Class A and D carbapenemases from Enterobacterales and notably, diverse Class D carbapenemases from Acinetobacter, it also inhibits many metallo β-lactamases. Importantly, it is minimally affected by general intrinsic resistance mechanisms such as efflux and porin mutations that impede entry of drugs into gram-negative bacteria. QPX7728 combinations with several intravenous (IV) β-lactam antibiotics shows broad coverage of Enterobacterales, Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, including strains that are resistant to other IV β-lactam-BLI combinations, e.g., ceftazidime-avibactam, ceftolozane-tazobactam, meropenem-vaborbactam and imipenem-relebactam that were recently approved for clinical use. Based on studies with P. aeruginosa, different partner β-lactams in combination with QPX7728 may be optimal for the coverage of susceptible organisms. This provides microbiological justification for a stand-alone BLI product for co-administration with different β-lactams. QPX7728 can also be delivered orally; thus, its ultra-broad β-lactamase inhibition spectrum and other features could be also applied to oral QPX7728-based combination products. Clinical development of QPX7728 has been initiated.

Service Design as a Catalyst for Patient-Centered eHealth Innovation

Today's healthcare industry is confronted with a myriad of challenges amidst emerging trends and opportunities which trigger a paradigm shift in healthcare design from stand-alone products to holistic services. These three dimensions are critical in assessing and managing healthcare, particularly in underserved settings. This study aims to maximize opportunities presented by both design and information and communication technologies to enhance the implementation of integrated people-centered health services. It is a qualitative study conducted across six government health facilities within Nairobi slums in Kenya as a case study of maternal health information services. Co-design-oriented service design research strategy is employed while a representative sample of (n=47) participants is drawn from different stakeholders in the public health sector. An architectural design framework for cloud-based patient-centered health information service is designed to support maternal care in underserved settings. A prototype service (AfyaTab app) is developed as a proof-of-concept of the proposed design solution.

Sustainable Product-Service Systems Customization: A Case Study Research in the Medical Equipment Sector

The paper proposes a Product-Service System (PSS) methodology for customizing solutions to different patterns of use while achieving a better environmental performance than a stand-alone product. The approach is based on combining the Quality Function Deployment for Product-Service Systems (QFDforPSS) and the Screening Life Cycle Modeling (SLCM) tools. QFDforPSS is augmented by the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) to reduce service-related ambiguities and uncertainties on the one hand and better define the product and service characteristics of the solution on the other. The SLCM evaluates the possible outcomes by determining the environmental impact and comparing it with the manufacturer’s current solution. A case study at a manufacturer of medical diagnostic equipment illustrates the use of the approach depicting the possible benefits that can arise: the PSS solution can be customized to fit customers who intensively use the product and consumers with a more moderate use. This offers flexibility and an optimized life cycle through easier maintenance, upgrades, and end-of-life schemes. Concretely, it shows how the PSS approach can enhance the development of sustainable solutions that can be adapted to varying and future customer needs, such as adjusting current solutions to new requirements, i.e., adapting existing products to COVID-19 detection and different levels of use.

GP2S, an Information Management System for CryoEM Experiments

Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryoEM) has become an integral part of many drug-discovery projects because crystallography of the protein target is not always achievable and cryoEM provides an alternative means to support structure-based ligand design. When dealing with a large number of distinct projects, and within each project a potentially large number of ligand-protein co-structures, accurate record keeping rapidly becomes challenging. Many experimental parameters are tuned for each target, including at the sample preparation, grid preparation, and microscopy stages. Therefore, accurate record keeping can be crucially important to enable long-term reproducibility, and to facilitate efficient teamwork, especially when steps of the cryoEM workflow are performed by different operators. To help deal with this challenge, we developed a web-based information management system for cryoEM, called gP2S. The application keeps track of each experiment, from sample to final atomic model, in the context of projects, a list of which is maintained in the application, or externally in a separate system. User-defined controlled vocabularies of consumables, equipment, protocols and software help describe each step of the cryoEM workflow in a structured manner. gP2S is widely configurable and, depending on the team's needs, may exist as a standalone product or be a part of a broader ecosystem of scientific applications, integrating via REST APIs with project management tools, applications tracking the production of proteins or of small molecules ligands, or applications automating data collection and storage. Users can register details of each grid and microscopy session including key experimental metadata and parameter values, and the lineage of each experimental artifact (sample, grid, microscopy session, map, etc.) is recorded. gP2S serves as a cryoEM experimental workflow organizer that enables accurate record keeping for teams, and is available under an open-source license.

GP2S, an Information Management System for CryoEM Experiments.

Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryoEM) has become an integral part of many drug-discovery projects because crystallography of the protein target is not always achievable and cryoEM provides an alternative means to support structure-based ligand design. When dealing with a large number of distinct projects, and within each project a potentially large number of ligand-protein co-structures, accurate record keeping rapidly becomes challenging. Many experimental parameters are tuned for each target, including at the sample preparation, grid preparation, and microscopy stages. Therefore, accurate record keeping can be crucially important to enable long-term reproducibility, and to facilitate efficient teamwork, especially when steps of the cryoEM workflow are performed by different operators. To help deal with this challenge, we developed a web-based information management system for cryoEM, called gP2S. The application keeps track of each experiment, from sample to final atomic model, in the context of projects, a list of which is maintained in the application, or externally in a separate system. User-defined controlled vocabularies of consumables, equipment, protocols and software help describe each step of the cryoEM workflow in a structured manner. gP2S is widely configurable and, depending on the team's needs, may exist as a standalone product or be a part of a broader ecosystem of scientific applications, integrating via REST APIs with project management tools, applications tracking the production of proteins or of small molecules ligands, or applications automating data collection and storage. Users can register details of each grid and microscopy session including key experimental metadata and parameter values, and the lineage of each experimental artifact (sample, grid, microscopy session, map, etc.) is recorded. gP2S serves as a cryoEM experimental workflow organizer that enables accurate record keeping for teams, and is available under an open-source license.

The impact of merchant and mobile payments on financial inclusion in Asia-Pacific

Financial inclusion is one of the biggest impediments to growth in South-east Asia. Access to financial products or even financial institutions is very limited in some countries, constraining both individual and company access to capital. This phenomenon has only intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, and is especially problematic for those individuals and companies with largely offline businesses. This paper argues that the roots of change are starting to take hold, as payment service providers and business-to-business players are helping bridge the digital divide. Payments services are increasingly likely not to be standalone products, but rather to include a myriad of both financial and non-financial products and services that can help individuals and companies increase their economic empowerment.

An Easy, Cost-Effective, and Scalable Method to Deplete Human Ribosomal RNA for RNA-seq.

RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a powerful and increasingly prevalent method to characterize and quantify the transcriptome. Ribosomes are extremely abundant, however, and approximately 80% of total RNA is ribosomal RNA (rRNA). Therefore, to detect and quantify less abundant yet biologically important transcripts such as messenger RNA (mRNA) and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA), it is essential to minimize the rRNA being sequenced. Although commercial methods exist to deplete rRNA from total RNA samples before sequencing, they are expensive and require specific amounts of input RNA, and the most commonly used kit is no longer available as a stand-alone product. Here, we present an optimized rRNA depletion protocol using RNase H and DNA oligonucleotides complementary to human rRNA transcripts. This protocol includes guidelines for DNA oligo preparation, RNA:DNA hybridization, RNase H cleavage and RNA cleanup, and benchmarking of rRNA depletion. The method is flexible because the user can include additional complementary DNA oligos directed against any abundant transcript in their particular system. Furthermore, the performance of this rRNA depletion approach is comparable to or better than that of commercial kits, at a fraction of the cost and across a wide range of input RNA amounts. © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC. Basic Protocol: Specific depletion of rRNA transcripts from human total RNA Support Protocol: Preparation of the rRNA depletion DNA oligonucleotide pool.

Synergistic utilization of diverse industrial wastes for reutilization in steel production and their geopolymerization potential

Recycling wastes back into a manufacturing process, or into a separate product, is an important challenge. The primary aim of this work was to combine wastes from the steel industry, the galvanizing industry and the pulp and paper industry to form two new useful products. The steel industry generates the wastes red dust, mill scale, blast oxygen furnace slag and iron ore fines. Galvanizing industrial facilities dispose of sulfuric acid contaminated with iron. The pulp and paper industry produces the byproduct black liquor, which is high in lignin. Inserting these wastes as resources into the steel industry, or as stand-alone products, could reduce the need for virgin materials. The main methodology of the work was three-fold. First, spent sulfuric acid was used to precipitate the lignin from black liquor. Second, this lignin was combined with steel industry wastes and geopolymeric materials to make briquettes, a sustainable reducing material for steelmaking furnaces. Briquettes contained red dust, mill scale, blast oxygen furnace slag, iron ore fines and lignin precipitated from black liquor with spent sulfuric acid. Key research findings of compressive strength and weight loss testing showed the briquettes to be feasible for steel-making furnace use. Third, these steel industry wastes were investigated as a partial fly ash replacement in geopolymers. Main research findings were that compared to the control geopolymer, these geopolymer samples improved compressive strength and gave similar workability. Thus, the investigated wastes have the potential to both increase recycling in the steel industry and to improve geopolymeric products.

Demineralized Bone Matrix in Spine Surgery: A Review of Current Applications and Future Trends

Graft augmentation for spinal fusion is an area of continued interest, with a wide variety of available products lacking clear recommendations regarding appropriate use. While iliac crest autograft has long been considered the "gold standard", suboptimal fusion rates along with harvest-related concerns continue to drive the need for graft alternatives. There are now multiple options of products with various characteristics that are available. These include demineralized bone matrix (DBM) and demineralized bone fibers (DBF), which have been used increasingly to promote spine fusion. The purpose of this review is to provide an updated narrative on the use of DBM/DBF in spine surgery. Literature review. The clinical application of DBM in spine surgery has evolved since its introduction in the mid-1900s. Early preclinical studies demonstrated its effectiveness in promoting fusion. When used in the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine, more recent clinical data suggest similar rates of fusion compared with autograft, although clinical studies are primarily limited to level III or IV evidence with few level I studies. However, significant variability in surgical technique and type of product used in the literature limits its interpretation and overall application. DBM and DBF are bone graft options in spine surgery. Most commonly used as graft extenders, they have the ability to increase the volume of traditional grafting techniques while potentially inducing new bone formation. While the literature supports good fusion rates when used in the lumbar spine and when used with adjuvant cages or additional grafting techniques in the cervical spine, care should be taken when using as a stand-alone product. As new literature emerges, DBM and DBF can be a useful method in a surgeon's armamentarium for fusion-based procedures.

Harnessing the power of CNNs for unevenly-sampled light-curves using Markov Transition Field

The search for exoplanets has evolved from case by case data inspection to automatic pattern recognition methods for processing a very large number of light curves. For this reason, the use of machine learning techniques has become a common practice in the field, where deep learning models are now in the spotlight as a promising leap forward towards automation. However, despite being faster than manual inspection, they usually still need hand-crafted features to achieve good results. Moreover, not all methods allow real world data where a large portion of the data is missing or at least is not regularly sampled. In this paper, we propose a method that only requires the raw light curve to identify exoplanets without the need of additional metadata or specific formats for the time series. We transform unevenly-sampled time series (light curves) of variable length into a 2-channel fixed-sized image using Markov Transition Field, which feeds a convolutional neural network that classifies candidate transients. We conducted experiments using the Kepler Mission dataset, identifying two key results: (1) the method is competitive in terms of performance to the state-of-the-art alternatives, yet it is simpler and faster. (2) A Markov Transition Field can be used as an effective stand-alone data product for analyzing unevenly-sampled transient light curves.

Foreword - Why Is Systematic Investing Important?

In this era of inexpensive computation and vast data, systematic, or algorithmically driven, investment is increasingly popular. Systematic strategies appear in stand-alone products as well in tail-hedging and defensive-overlay strategies. Indeed, given the enormous growth in data, it is becoming infeasible to process these data without the assistance of systematic tools. The key advantage of the systematic approach is the discipline it imposes—for example, machines are not plagued by behavioral issues such as disposition bias, and in a time of crisis, a systematic strategy keeps a “cool head.” Systematic approaches also pose many challenges. Systematic strategies may not quickly adapt to structural changes in the market. They also present the risk of “tech-washing” whereby an investment product claims to use “the latest machine-learning tools,” but the tools are misapplied or play a minimal role. Importantly, when systematic tools are applied by an inexperienced researcher, the backtests are often overfit, leading to disappointing performance in live trading.

Why Is Systematic Investing Important?

In this era of inexpensive computation and vast data, systematic, or algorithmically driven, investment is increasingly popular. Systematic strategies appear in stand-alone products as well in tail-hedging and defensive-overlay strategies. Indeed, given the enormous growth in data, it is becoming infeasible to process these data without the assistance of systematic tools. The key advantage of the systematic approach is the discipline it imposes—for example, machines are not plagued by behavioral issues such as disposition bias, and in a time of crisis, a systematic strategy keeps a “cool head.” Systematic approaches also pose many challenges. Systematic strategies may not quickly adapt to structural changes in the market. They also present the risk of “tech-washing” whereby an investment product claims to use “the latest machine-learning tools,” but the tools are misapplied or play a minimal role. Importantly, when systematic tools are applied by an inexperienced researcher, the backtests are often overfit, leading to disappointing performance in live trading. Forthcoming, Journal of Systematic Investing, 2021.

Implementation of an Intelligent Drilling Automation System in the Middle East

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Judy Feder, contains highlights of paper SPE 203251, “Drilling in the Digital Age: Harnessing Intelligent Automation To Deliver Superior Well-Construction Performance in a Major Middle Eastern Gas Field,” by Brennan Goodkey, Gerardo Hernandez, and Andres Nunez, Schlumberger, et al., prepared for the 2020 Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, Abu Dhabi, held virtually from 9-12 November. The paper has not been peer reviewed. While breakthroughs in digital technology have rewarded many industries with a step change in productivity and efficiency during the past decade, the drilling industry has yet to benefit on a large scale from these advances. The complete paper details the introduction of a drilling automation system (DAS) to deliver superior well-construction performance in a major gas field in the Middle East. The DAS was deployed on two onshore gas drilling rigs. The paper discusses the technology itself, the deployment process, implementation challenges, the agile development model, and the results achieved. Introduction In 2018, Schlumberger partnered with a major Middle Eastern national oil company on one of the world’s largest lump-sum, turnkey gas-well-delivery projects, where drilling operations had already been optimized by targeting high-impact, low-effort areas of opportunity. Drilling automation was pursued to achieve an improvement in performance, specifically to shift the technical limit and to minimize the frequency of service incidents that could cost days of nonproductive time (NPT). An in-house solution under development for some time was designed to take control of the rig’s surface equipment to automate and optimize most drilling tasks and to generate value in the following areas: Automation of drilling actions to perform exactly as planned, within the safe limits of operation, by eliminating the inconsistency of manual operation and its susceptibility to human factors Identification and mitigation of drilling dysfunctions that could lead to costly tool failures and incidents by using intelligence engines that would adapt drilling parameters continuously for best performance Technology Overview The DAS was developed as the execution component of a well-construction platform designed to link planning and execution. The planning component allowed for all well-design stakeholders to collaborate online and create the well plan simultaneously. Once prepared, the plan would be exported to the rig as a machine-interpretable digital drilling plan that the DAS could digest. With the validation of rig personnel, the DAS would then take control of a selection of drilling actions and execute exactly as instructed in the well plan. While drilling, extensive information would be collected to serve as a vehicle to drive performance when planning future wells. In the deployment summarized in the complete paper, a pilot version of the drilling automation module was deployed as a standalone product. The key objectives of design included three categories - dynamic planning, safety and resilience, and interoperability.

Establishing principles in digital transformation through comparative analysis of frameworks and development strategies in platform/coding development for consulting

The industry continues to increase its utilisation of early phase and pre-execution engineering activities to provide higher-detailed solutions to reduce risks in execution. To meet this challenge, field development and engineering (concept, front-end and detailed design) have focused on digital transformation to increase their value-adding proposition. Organisations must now develop strategies to guide this digital transformation. The realities and opportunities of achieving digital transformation are demonstrated here through a comparative analysis of execution strategies (agile, on-project, stand-alone product), software/coding frameworks and discipline (field development, designand business management). These will reference successful developments of digital applications which cover the range of subjects above. The comparative analysis will present the technical and business challenges associated with digital transformations, such as the upskilling hump, complexity versus flexibility, initial scoping, data structure integration and cost-effective idea development strategies, as these challenges in implementation continue to propagate through future development. This study will also discuss the application of these alternate strategies/approaches and investigate whether we should be demanding all our workforce be familiar with current industry favourite full-code frameworks (Python, Javascript) or low-code frameworks (Microsoft Power Platform, SalesForce) to create value in everyday work. The comparative analysis will demonstrate how details within the above subjects can significantly affect the outcomes and costs of digitalisation initiatives. Finally, the study establishes key lessons learned and principles to guide the petroleum sector in this digital transformation.

Networked Self-Defense and Monetized Vigilantism: Private Surveillance Systems

As more and more Americans install internet-connected cameras in and around their homes, in their cars, on their bodies, and everywhere else, and then connect what they see on apps designed to transform surveillance into a social activity, we can see both old connections and novel ones. These developments build upon longstanding American traditions of lawful self-defense and extralegal vigilantism. Yet because these technologies also make use of internet-connected devices and cellphone apps, they introduce new dynamics of networking and monetization that raise questions distinct from issues of information privacy. Private surveillance systems offered to the public today are best understood not as standalone products, but networked surveillance ecosystems. And because these technologies are offered as consumer products, corporate interests further complicate how and why these private surveillance networks have expanded. This essay explores these connections as it situates this emerging world of networked self-defense and monetized vigilantism.