Software reviews

SHOWCASE is a series of diskettes designed for demonstrating sociology in the classroom. Each showcase diskette contains hundreds of variables covering a wide selection of areas. There are essentially four analysis options: mapping of variables, scatterplots, correlations, and multiple regressions. The programs are user-friendly, fast, and produce sharp graphics. Potential problems include the exclusion of important variables and the tendency to excessively apply statistical techniques to a limited database.

M athematica provides numeric and symbolic calculations, visualization, and a complete programming environment. Used worldwide by students, engineers, physicists, analysts and other technical professionals, many have discovered M athematica's unique combination of unmatched computational power.
Many Mathematica users have found Mathematica' s plotting and graph customization capabilities slightly overwhelming, and wish for an easy way to produce publication-quality graphs,' said Joe Przechocki, Product Manager, at Microcal Software.`The Origin Link for M athematica add-on package gives them a whole new kind of plotting power, letting them perform powerful calculations within Mathematica while producing and customizing graphs in Origin, in ways they couldn' t imagine before.' Origin is a scienti® c graphing and data analysis software widely used by scientists and engineers around the world. With this new Origin Link for M athematica interface, Mathematica users can tap into the graphing power of this exciting software. The link truly combines the computational power of Mathematica with Origin's intuitive graphing capabilities. Users will be able to manipulate and visualize data and equations with just a few mouse clicks ± and then export their ® nal graph in a wide variety of ® le formats such as EPS, JPG, TIF and more. Origin also acts as an OLE2 graphics server for Microsoft Windows applications.
The Origin Link for M athematica consists of a multi-tabbed dialogue box that allows data and expressions to be transferred between Mathematica and Origin. Any Mathematica expression can be entered and the results can be viewed in a scrollable window. Mathematica' s extensive technical computing capabilities can be used to analyse the data and the results can be graphed in Origin. Double-clicking on any graph element in Origin brings up an intuitive dialogue box that can be used to achieve the desired look with ease. Using Origin to create and edit graphs will save the Mathematica user considerable time.  16 M ay, 2000: Critical bottlenecks in the drug pipeline identi® ed in the areas of genomics, screening, compound management and ADME/toxicology are placing increased pressure on laboratories. To address these growing challenges, Zymark Corporation announces the launch of its Staccato application workstations.

Pricing information
These application-focused workstations, based on 20 years of automation experience coupled with innovative liquid handling, stacking and control software technologies from recently acquired Scitec, provide a uniform architecture using reliable and econmical building blocks. The Staccato workstations expand¯exibility, capacity and throughput using 96-, 384-and 1536-well microplate technologies.
At the heart of the Staccato Workstations is the Zymark SciClone TM liquid handling and Presto TM autostacking technology, advanced articulated arm robotics and the new CLARA TM 2000 open architecture software. These core automation modules with optional readers, washers, incubators and ® ltration units give the user the capability to select the peripherals needed for the application. The result is a scalable, cost-e ective workstation with a small footprint and¯exibility, throughput and capacity not currently available from any other supplier.
Two years ago, Zymark launched the Allegro Ultra High Througput Screening System which was truly a revolutionary screening breakthrough ', explains Kevin Hrusovsky, Zymark's President and CEO.`Building on this successful model for standardized automation and additional customer input, we created a broader vision to provide new laboratory automation technology to debottleneck critical applications within the drug pipeline. Since the acquisition of Scitec Automation nine months ago, Zymark has successfully incorporated new xyz and articulated arm robotics, and scheduling control software that are the cornerstone of the Staccato applications.
Eight key application areas in DNA puri® cation, ampli-® cation and clean-up as well as ADME toxicology, traditional screening, hit-picking and plate replication all use the same easy-to-use building blocks.' Our customers are high pro® le scientists in key genomic research facilities. They expressed a need for a high throughput automated workstation to purify plasmid DNA, a very common and time consuming application, ' commented Roy Vallie, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Eppendorf 5 Prime.`Using Zymark' s standard liquid handling and storage technologies along with their scheduling software, we have been able to deliver a standard DNA puri® cation platform, compatible with our Perfect Prep-96 chemistry, that reliably delivers 10 times more throughput than any automated platform available on the market ± and more importantly is out of the box and running in a fraction of the time. Response from customers currently using the workstation has been amazing.' Zymark Corporation, headquartered in Hopkinton, MA, is a worldwide leader in laboratory automation for pharmaceutical and biotechnology applications. Zymark serves the worldwide pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, and hosts the annual ISLAR conference on laboratory automation. The company employs about 300 people in the USA, Canada, Japan and Europe, and has authorized sales and service distributors throughout the rest of the world.

A lias announces I-Sketch Field, the worlds rst piping isometric software on a palm PC
Alias Limited, market leader for piping isomeric software, has announced the introduction of I-Sketch Field, the ® rst ever piping isometric software to be made available on a Palm PC. This innovative product has been speci® cally designed to be used by engineers who are looking for a portable solution to carry out design alterations and capture as-built piping information onsite.

I-Sketch
Field o ers an easy to use, compact and productive application that allows the veri® cation of existing pipe con® gurations and the creation of new isometric drawings for tie-ins. Veri® cation can be performed by loading the existing pipes, from any 3D model supporting ISOGEN, onto the hand-held device. Comments and notes are then added for later editing or inclusion into the 3D model. Synchronization between I-Sketch Field and I-Sketch enables all information and adaptations made on the Palm PC during the site visit to be easily and quickly transported back into I-Sketch installed on the PC. Other tools within I-Sketch can then transfer all the material back into your Plant Design System including PDS, PDMS.
I-Sketch represents breakthrough technology that is sold at a very competitive price. Isometric drawings can be created in minutes from simple sketches using the industry de-facto ISOGEN. It is so easy to use that specialist drafting, CAD or 3D modelling skills are no longer required.
I-Sketch, together with I-Sketch Field o ers the latest in engineering technology, delivering easy to use, appropriate tools for plants engineers and piping designers.

More on Alias
Alias Limited is based in the north west of England and specializes in the development of software for the process industries. The core competence of the company is automating labour-intensive operations in plant design with a particular focus on pipes.
Alias leads the world for automatic piping isometric generation with their¯agship product, ISOGEN, which is available from Intergraph, Rebis, Bentley, CADCentre, Kockums Computer Systems, Aquaconsult, CEA International, Profox, COADE, Orange Systems, PRO-CAD, Unigraphics and Parametric Technology Corporation. More recent additions to the Alias product portfolio include SPOOLGEN for the production and management of fabrication spool isometrics and I-Sketch for the automatic production of piping isometrics from simple sketches.
The company was formed in 1991 by a team who had been involved in these activities within ICI plc. The company's products are now available worldwide via a comprehensive network of resellers.

A lias Limited release I-Sketch Version 2
Alias Limited has announced the availability of I-Sketch Version 2. This new release o ers all the improvements that existing users have requested, whilst maintaining the quality and ease of use of Version 1.3. I-Sketch Version 2 incorporates many new features and enhancements that will raise productivity, provide great-er usability and increase e ciency when creating and editing isometric drawings. Improvements include the Import Utility, dimensioning enhancements, greater pipe editing capabilities, extra catalogue and speci® cation properties, and design rule checking to minimize drawing errors.
The import utility will allow any pipe created in a plant design system, that supports ISOGEN, to be imported into I-Sketch for editing purposes. Pipe editing has been made easier with the ability to edit multiple components and apply global changes. Automatic dimensioning reduces the time it takes to prepare the sketch and create the isometric drawing by evaluating known information and applying it to other sections of the piping network. Enhancements to the speci® cation system ensure that every component will automatically have an item code assigned to it and thus be fully speci® ed when you place it on the sketch. I-Sketch version 2 is a complete package that simpli® es the task of creating isometric drawings by non-CADtrained engineering personnel.
Software is currently shipping to selected users for ® nal beta testing. The full production version is expected to be available mid-March 2000.