Green Coalescent Synthesis Based on the Design for Environment (DfE) Principles: Brazilian Experience

Coalescents are compounds with a high potential for generating tropospheric ozone, which causes adverse effects on humans and their surroundings. This study designed a coalescent for decorative paints that reached technical levels equivalent to those obtained by StC, a product on the market, but with better environmental and economic performance. The strategy adopted in creating the green coalescent (GrC) improved film formation and reduced the product’s atmospheric emission rate. Regarding the environmental performance, GrC outperformed StC in terms of water consumption, global warming potential, and human toxicity by 30%, 35%, and 91%, but had a high smog formation potential even with a reduced loss to the air. The redesign of the molecule gave rise to AGrC, which achieved a more homogeneous environmental performance. The results of an economic analysis indicated that the procedures adopted to reduce environmental impacts could also make the coalescent more competitive if the lowest market prices were practiced. On the other hand, if the products are sold at high prices, the paint industry tends to privilege the economic dimension and disregard environmental performance for decision purposes. This research succeeded in reconciling technical functions and aspects related to sustainability to design more competitive products in the Brazilian market.

THE NEW SELFIE STANDARD: FACETUNE AND THE SHIFT TOWARD EAST ASIAN SELFIE AESTHETICS

Since its release in 2013, Facetune has risen to become the top paid photo and video app in the US. In this study, we document that the types of retouching tools Facetune make available mark a more significant shift in the American cultural practice of image editing, signaling an adoption of East Asian attitudes toward beauty standards and the plasticity of the image. Working within the Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis (CTDA) framework, we track this shift by undertaking a Walkthrough Analysis of the Facetune app. This combination of methods allowed us to examine not only cultural beliefs around the self-image but also the affordances and materiality of the app by directly engaging the interface and technical functions of the app. We found evidence of Facetune pushing certain East Asian beauty ideals that may fall outside of American standards such as the Face resizing features that allow users to adjust nose, eyes, forehead, and lips by size and position. Furthermore, Facetune uses the photo not in its traditional role as a vessel for depicting a certain scene in time, but as a blank canvas on which to produce an ideal digital self. These findings offer a significant contribution in understanding shifting image editing practices online, particularly by highlighting the new technological tools and cultural beliefs that are leading this shift.

METHODOLOGY FOR A TASK-SPECIFIC AND PERSONALISED DEVELOPMENT OF AN INITIAL EXOSKELETON DESIGN

The use of exoskeletons promises improved ergonomics, empowerment of users and prevention of musculoskeletal disorders. However, the development process is complex and a generic development methodology that will guide and assist designers through it is missing. The goal of this paper is to describe a methodological approach that will assist the conceptual design of exoskeletons. Based on derived methodological requirements, activities 1, 2, and 3 of the VDI 2221 (Methodology for the development of technical products) are specified to adapt the generic guideline to the development process of exoskeletons. These activities include the analysis and determination of the relationship between the use case, product requirements and motions, technical functions, and design solutions. For generating a list of product requirements designers must focus on the workers’ motions and needs for a for a task-specific and personalised development. Use case specific movements are generalised by using rotational and translational basic movements that result in six degrees of freedom and from which a function structure is derived. The method is critically reviewed based on the established methodological requirements.

Challenges for Nanotechnology

The term “Nanotechnology” describes a large field of scientific and technical activities dealing with objects and technical components with small dimensions. Typically, bodies that are in–at least–two dimensions smaller than 0.1 µm are regarded as “nanobjects”. By this definition, a lot of advanced materials, as well as the advanced electronic devices, are objects of nanotechnology. In addition, many aspects of molecular biotechnology as well as macromolecular and supermolecular chemistry and nanoparticle techniques are summarized under “nanotechnology”. Despite this size-oriented definition, nanotechnology is dealing with physics and chemistry as well as with the realization of technical functions in the area between very small bodies and single particles and molecules. This includes the shift from classical physics into the quantum world of small molecules and low numbers or single elementary particles. Besides the already established fields of nanotechnology, there is a big expectation about technical progress and solution to essential economic, medical, and ecological problems by means of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology can only meet these expectations if fundamental progress behind the recent state of the art can be achieved. Therefore, very important challenges for nanotechnology are discussed here.

A new approach determining the scope of legal protection of industrial designs in Ukraine

Key words: scope of legal protection, informed user, overall impression, degree of author's freedom, registered industrial design, unregistered industrial design This article analyzes the norms of the Law of Ukraine «On the Protection of Rights to Industrial Designs» as amended on October 14, 2020, in the part that regulates relations as to the establishment of the scope of legal protection for an industrial design. A comparative analysis as to the norms of wording the Law of Ukraine «On the Protection of Rights to Industrial Designs» dated on October 14, 2020, and the norms of the said Law as of 05.12.2012, has been carried out, and as a result of which it was found that the norms of wording the Law as of 05.12.2012 concerning legal relations pertaining to the establishment of the scope of legal protection and the fact of the use of an industrial design in a product or later registered industrial design, as well as the requirements for means by which the scope of legal protection was found, differ significantly from the norms wording the Law as of 05.12.2012. In particular, it was established that prior to the adoption of the Law as amended on 14.10.2020, the scope of legal protection for the industrial design, instead of being based on the impression produced on an informed user, was determined by the set of essential features presented on the images of the product andgiven in the description of the industrial design. There are also differences in means used to establish the scope of legal protection for the industrial design. If in the wording of the Law as of 14.10.2020 only pictorial means are used, then in the wording of the said Law as of 05.12.2012 — together with pictorial means descriptive verbal means are also taken into account (the list of essential features of the industrial design is given in the description). Also distinctive is that the wording of the Law as of 14.10.2020 did not provide legal protection for the appearance of the product solely due to its technical functions, the appearance of the product, the size and the shape of which must be accurately reproduced in order that one product can be mechanically connected to another one or located inside, around or in front of another product in such a way that each one can perform its function and the features embodied or used in the product as part of the assembled make and are being invisible during normal use of the product.

A COMPARISON STUDY ON ORNAMENT OF RUMOH ACEH IN ACEH BESAR AND UMAH PITU RUANG IN ACEH TENGAH

This study aims to describe the diversity of ornaments used in traditional house in Aceh Besar and Aceh Tengah. The diversity of ornaments was viewed through four approaches, including: the location of ornament used in traditional house, types of ornament, the basic form of geometric, and the function. The location of ornaments used in traditional houses Is divided into three parts, lower part (the feet of the building), middle part (the body of the building), and top (the head of the building). The type of ornament described the category of ornament. The basic form of ornament is a study that described the geometric type of ornament. Finally, the ornament function is to explain the aesthetic, meaning, and technical functions of using ornamentation. Rumoh Aceh and Umah Pitu Ruang are cultural assets and local identities of Aceh with all its local wisdom. This study was conducted as an effort to preserve the existence of ornaments in Aceh traditional house, especially in Aceh Besar and Aceh Tengah.

THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND IN ECONOMIC RELATIONS

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization that plays an important role in regulating the economy and aims to prevent the economic crisis by providing various loans to many developing countries. At the same time, one of the IMF's priority goals is to reduce poverty. The article clarifies the issues related to the regulation of economic relations between the IMF and its consequences, as well as examines the legal and factual aspects of this regulation. Key words: The International Monetary Fund, organization, governance, surveillance, financial and technical functions, poverty reduction

What Is It Like to Be a Bot?

This chapter seeks to further develop, define, and differentiate human-technics alterity relations within postphenomenological philosophy of technology. A central case study of the Alexa digital assistant establishes that digital assistants require the adoption of the intentional stance, and illustrates that this structural requirement is different from anthropomorphic projection of mindedness onto technical objects. Human-technics alterity relations based on projection are then more generally differentiated from human-technics alterity relations based on actual encoded pseudo-mental contents, where there are matters of fact that directly correspond to user conceptualizations of “intentions” or “knowledge” in technical systems or objects. Finally, functions and user benefits to different alterity relations are explored, establishing that there is a meaningful set of cases where the projection of a mind in human-technics alterity relations positively impacts technical functions and user experiences.

The Epistemic Role of Technical Functions

Technical functions of artifacts are commonly distinguished from their social functions and from biological functions of organisms. Schemes for classifying functions often encounter what the author calls the continuum problem—the imperceptible merger of function kinds. This is a special case of a debate about natural kinds in philosophy of science, which has resulted in a turn to an epistemological construal of kinds, in contrast to the traditional, purely ontological construal. The author argues for an epistemic analysis of function kinds along the lines of John Dupré’s (1993) “promiscuous realism.” This provides leverage for asking new and important questions about the epistemic purposes served by our various schemes for classifying artifact functions, and about the epistemic role of technical functions in particular. The author argues that the common classification into technical, social, and biological functions has more disadvantages than it has advantages.