Diversification instruments for machine-building enterprises

Improving the competitiveness of engineering products, import substitution and increasing high-tech exports are priority government tasks. The development of the high-tech products production is ensured through the diversification of engineering enterprises. The study revealed a number of problems that machine-building enterprises are facing when mastering the production of new products. The diversification methods and tools used largely determine the effectiveness of activities throughout the entire product life cycle. The authors consider the value analysis method as a key instrument for implementing the diversification strategy. Value analysis includes a variety of instruments, such as conducting marketing and patent research, reverse engineering, cooperative chain design, and others. The determination of the company's preparedness for diversification is of particular importance. The article presents an approach to assessing the key functional areas of the enterprise that indicate its preparedness for diversification. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd

Profiling the vendors of COVID‐19 related product on the Darknet: An observational study

Background In a time of unprecedented global change, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a surge in demand of COVID-19 vaccines and related certifications. Mainly due to supply shortages, counterfeit vaccines, fake documentation, and alleged cures to illegal portfolios, have been offered on darkweb marketplaces (DWMs) with important public health consequences. We aimed to profile key DWMs and vendors by presenting some in-depth case studies. Methods A non-systematic search for COVID-19 products was performed across 118 DWMs. Levels of activity, credibility, content, COVID-19 product listings, privacy protocols were among the features retrieved. Open web fora and other open web sources were also considered for further analysis of both functional and non functional DWMs. Collected data refers to the period between January 2020 and October 2021. Results A total of 42 relevant listings sold by 24 vendors across eight DWMs were identified. Four of these markets were active and well-established at the time of the study with good levels of credibility. COVID-19 products were listed alongside other marketplace content. Vendors had a trusted profile, communicated in English language and accepted payments in cryptocurrencies (Monero or Bitcoin). Their geographical location included the USA, Asia and Europe. While COVID-19 related goods were mostly available for regional supply, other listings were also shipped worldwide. Interpretation Findings emerging from this study rise important questions about the health safety of certain DWMs activities and encourage the development of targeted interventions to overcome such new and rapidly expanding public health threats. Funding CovSaf, National Research centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence Online (REPHRAIN), Commonwealth Fund

Marketing aspect in the 'Value Engineering' in the new products development of machine-building enterprises

The dynamism of the engineering products markets is determined by a high level of competition, frequent changes in technology. One of the key problems of Russian machine-building enterprises is the long term of development and putting the product into the production which leads to the fact that 'yesterday's product is launched on tomorrow's markets'. So, we see an arising need for a fundamental change in the product development process by including future consumers in it and ensuring verification of the results at each stage, from the formation of the technical task to the testing of the finished product. Such an approach will allow balancing consumer value and product characteristics, determining the significance and cost of functions, and substantiating a fair price. These problems are solved by the method of value engineering of a product. Application of this method requires reliable information on consumer characteristics, conditions and process of product operation, parameters of similar products. The tools of classical marketing research and new products engineering development should be combined into one system. As a result, the use of value engineering reduces the time required to bring a new product to the market and increases the competitiveness of the product. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd

Market restrictions on the lifting and transportation equipment production

Over the past few decades, the trends of globalization and the markets expansion have been fundamental in the Russian and world economies. Such economic structure requires a large volume and range of transportation, the storage systems presence, the transported objects distribution. Logistics centers become an integral part of the economic development both for the regions and the country as a whole. Logistics centers, in turn, need specialized equipment that allows the most efficient use of existing storage areas. Reach truck is one of the most commonly used equipment in large A and A + warehouses. The article presents the estimating market restrictions method when the equipment cost determining taking into account the characteristics of the designed facility and the main competitors represented on the market. The method peculiarity is taking into account the technical and consumer characteristics of the investigated object, their comparison with the competitors' parameters. Based on this comparison, the possible product price is determined. The proposed technique allows to optimize equipment configuration and price depending on the consumers' needs. The proposed evaluation algorithm was tested on complex technical equipment (reach truck), but it should be noted that the proposed methodology is universal and can be applied to any technical object. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd

Utilization aspects in a life cycle contract (the example of public transport in Russia)

A structural analysis of public transport in Russia on the criterion 'passenger turnover' has been carried out in the last few years. Demand statistics have been compiled for all urban transport types. This has led to identify the quantitatively predominant types of public transport with a high pace of development. The article discusses the possibility of applying the life cycle contract concept to public transport in connection with the popularization of the concept on the one hand and the relevance of resolving organizational issues of exploitation public transport on the other. The article shows that public transport plays a key role in the total volume of citizens' movement in Russia, therefore a life cycle contract is applicable to it as a whole. And the final phase of the life cycle contract is about utilization. Federal State Statistics Service data on passenger transport should form the basis for the correct calculation of future production capacities of end-of-life vehicles processors. This is necessary for the effective realization of the stage of 'decline' of the life cycle contract. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd

Illicit COVID-19 products online: A mixed-method approach for identifying and preventing online health risks

Aims The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a demand for vaccines, cures, and the need of related documentation for travel, work and other purposes. Our project aimed to identify the illicit availability of such products across the Dark Web Markets (DWMs). Methods A retrospective search for COVID-19 related products was carried out across 118 DWMs since the start of the pandemic (March 2020-October 2021). Data on vendors as well as advertised goods such as asking price, marketplace, listed date were collected and further validated through additional searches on the open web to verify the information relating to specific marketplaces. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data analysis. Results Forty-two listings of unlicenced COVID-19 cures and vaccination certificates were identified across 8 marketplaces sold by 25 vendors with significant variation in prices. The listings were found to be geographically specific and followed the progression of the pandemic in terms of availability. Correlations between vendor portfolios of COVID-19 products and variety of goods of other illicit nature such as illegal weaponry, medication/drugs of abuse also emerged from our analysis. Conclusion This study is one of the first attempts to identify the availability of unlicenced COVID-19 products on DWMs. The easy accessibility to vaccines, fake test certificates and hypothetical/illegal cures poses serious health risks to (potential) buyers due to the uncontrolled nature of such products. It also exposes buyers to an unwanted contact with vendors selling a variety of other dangerous illicit goods. Further monitoring and regulatory responses should be implemented to protect the health and safety of citizens especially at times of global crisis

CMS physics technical design report : Addendum on high density QCD with heavy ions

Peer reviewe

The Use of Students’ Linguistic Resources in Teaching English as an Additional Language in Norway. Prilutskaya, M., Knoph, R., & and Allen Hanssen, J. (2020)

Appendice

Writing in L2: Norwegian Students’ Use of Translanguaging at the Draft Stage

Translanguaging corpus, raw data: draft