Emotions, My Dear Watson: Dissecting Copyright/Trademark Infringement in Netflix’s Portrayal of Sherlock Holmes

On September 23, 2020, Netflix released the “Enola Holmes” movie despite being embroiled in a lawsuit for alleged copyright and trademark infringement brought by the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the author of the Sherlock Holmes novels). “Enola Holmes” is a film based on a book about the life of Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister. The movie stars actress Millie Bobby Brown as Enola, and Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes. In the complaint, the estate argues that although most of the Holmes novels are in the public domain, Doyle only began to give Holmes true human emotion in the last ten stories (which are still protected). The estate claims that this emotion, which is portrayed by the character in the movie, is protected expression. This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal website on October 19, 2020. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above

Synthese und Funktionelle Materialeigenschaften 2D-Angeordneter SiC- und SiCN-Nanostrukturen

Die Herstellung quasi-eindimensionaler nichtoxidischer Siliciumkeramiken stellt eine große Herausforderung dar und konnte lediglich für Siliciumcarbid realisiert werden. Quasi-eindimensionale Siliciumcarbid-Nanostrukturen werden durch optimierte klassische Syntheseverfahren des Siliciumcarbids hergestellt, sind einkristallin und ihre Aspektverhältnisse sowie Orientierung lassen sich während der Synthese nur schwer kontrollieren. Die vorliegende Arbeit erweitert das Spektrum der nichtoxidischen quasi-eindimensionalen Silicium- keramiken bezüglich der Geometrie und der chemischen Zusammensetzung im Si/C/N-System. Die Entwicklung eines geeigneten Templat-Verfahrens ermöglicht zum ersten Mal die Nanostrukturierung der polymerabgeleiteten Keramiken durch ihre Infiltration in nanoporöse Template mit zylindrischen Poren. Die thermisch induzierte Keramisierung des Infiltrats mit anschließender Templat-Entfernung führt zur Herstellung keramischen Nanostrukturen mit maßgeschneiderter Geometrie und chemischer Zusammensetzung. Voruntersuchungen basierend auf kommerziell erhältliche Aluminiumoxid-Membranen beweisen eine erhöhte chemische Wechselwirkung zwischen Aluminiumoxid und Siliciumpolymeren. Diese Erkenntnis erklärt die begrenzten wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen auf diesem Gebiet und lenkt das Ziel der Arbeit zur Entwicklung eines neuartigen nichtoxidischen und hochtemperaturstabilen Templats. Diese Herausforderung konnte durch erstmalige Umwandlung der Aluminiumoxid- in Aluminiumnitrid-Membranen über Reaktivgassynthese unter Erhaltung der Porenstruktur gemeistert werden. Systematische Infiltrationsuntersuchungen werden mit chemisch inerten Aluminiumnitrid-Membranen durchgeführt. Das entwickelte Templat-Verfahren erlaubt die Flüssiginfiltration niedrigviskoser und die Vakuuminfiltration hochviskoser Siliciumpolymere sowie die in situ Sol-Gel-Infiltration des nichtoxidischen siliciumcarbodiimid-basierten Sol-Gel-Systems. Die keramische Ausbeute des präkeramischen Vorläufers entscheidet über die Entstehung von hohlen Nanoröhren bzw. massiven Nanostäben. Die 2D-Anordnung der Nanostrukturen bleibt nach der Entfernung des Templats erhalten. Die quasi-eindimensionalen polymerabgeleiteten SiCN-Nanostrukturen sind röntgenamorph und weisen nach der Keramisierung eine identische chemische Zusammensetzung wie die entsprechenden SiCN-Bulk-Keramiken auf. Die Struktur/Eigenschaftsbeziehungen in diesem System kommen erst nach Behandlung der Nanostrukturen bei hohen Temperaturen zum Vorschein. Die Kristallisation der Nanostrukturen tritt unter Ausscheidung des kristallinen Siliciumnitrids ab 1400 °C ein. Zum ersten Mal werden polykristalline und kompositartige Si3N4/SiC/C-Nanostrukturen hergestellt. Zusätzlich zeigen die nanostrukturierten SiCN-Keramiken anders als die entsprechenden SiCN-Bulk-Keramiken nach isothermer Auslagerung bei 1400°C eine höhere Reaktivität gegenüber Stickstoff, wobei eine Stickstoff-Anreicherung festgestellt wird. Ansätze für eine photolithographie-basierte Prozessierung und Anwendung der hergestellten 2D-angeordneten Nanostrukturen in mikroelektromechanische Systeme werden vorgestellt

Extending the performance of hybrid NoCs beyond the limitations of network heterogeneity

To meet the performance and scalability demands of the fast-paced technological growth towards exascale and Big-Data processing with the performance bottleneck of conventional metal based interconnects (wireline), alternative interconnect fabrics such as inhomogeneous three-dimensional integrated Network-on-Chip (3D NoC) and hybrid wired-wireless Network-on-Chip (WiNoC) have emanated as a cost-effective solution for emerging System-on-Chip (SoC) design. However, these interconnects trade-off optimized performance for cost by restricting the number of area and power hungry 3D routers and wireless nodes. Moreover, the non-uniform distributed traffic in chip multiprocessor (CMP) demands an on-chip communication infrastructure which can avoid congestion under high traffic conditions while possessing minimal pipeline delay at low-load conditions. To this end, in this paper, we propose a low-latency adaptive router with a low-complexity single-cycle bypassing mechanism to alleviate the performance degradation due to the slow 2D routers in such emerging hybrid NoCs. The proposed router transmits a flit using dimension-ordered routing (DoR) in the bypass datapath at low-loads. When the output port required for intra-dimension bypassing is not available, the packet is routed adaptively to avoid congestion. The router also has a simplified virtual channel allocation (VA) scheme that yields a non-speculative low-latency pipeline. By combining the low-complexity bypassing technique with adaptive routing, the proposed router is able balance the traffic in hybrid NoCs to achieve low-latency communication under various traffic loads. Simulation shows that, the proposed router can reduce applications’ execution time by an average of 16.9% compared to low-latency routers such as SWIFT. By reducing the latency between 2D routers (or wired nodes) and 3D routers (or wireless nodes) the proposed router can improve performance efficiency in terms of average packet delay by an average of 45% (or 50%) in 3D NoCs (or WiNoCs)

Laser-driven structural modifications and diffusion phenomena of plasmonic AlN/Ag stratified films

Laser annealing (LA) of AlN/Ag multilayers was proven to be an effective process to control the structure and dispersion of Ag into the AlN resulting in intense coloration via the localized surface plasmon resonance, which is of particular importance for decorative applications. In this work we present a study of the structural changes occurring in various AlN/Ag multilayers after LA, in an effort to establish firm knowledge of the diffusion and re-nucleation mechanisms that occur during the laser process. We investigate the effect of the basic LA parameters, such as the laser wavelength (193 and 248 nm), fluence (400–700 mJ/cm2), pressure (1 and 10 Bar) and number of pulses (1 and 2) and we show that the main processes is the Ag particle enhancement close to the film surface as a result of additive outidiffusion Ag and the formation of nanoparticles of varying size

Simulating the opto-thermal processes involved in laser induced self-assembly of surface and sub-surface plasmonic nano-structuring

Nano-structuring of metals is one of the greatest challenges for the future of plasmonic and photonic devices. Such a technology calls for the development of ultra-fast, high-throughput and low cost fabrication techniques. Laser processing accounts for the aforementioned properties, representing an unrivalled tool towards the anticipated arrival of modules based in metallic nano-structures, with an extra advantage: the ease of scalability. Specifically, laser nano-structuring of an ultra-thin metal film or an alternating metal film on a substrate/metal film on a substrate results respectively on surface (metallic nanoparticles on the surface of the substrate) or subsurface (metallic nanoparticles embedded in a dielectric matrix) plasmonic patterns with many applications. In this work we investigate theoretically the photo-thermal processes involved in surface and sub-surface plasmonic nano-structuring and compare to experiments. To this end, we present a design process and develop functional plasmonic nano-structures with pre-determined morphology by tuning the annealing parameters like the laser fluence and wavelength and/or the structure parameters like the thickness of the metallic film and the volume ratio of the metal film on a substrate-metal composite. For the surface plasmonic nano-structuring we utilize the ability to tune the laser's wavelength to either match the absorption spectral profile of the metal or to be resonant with the plasma oscillation frequency, i.e. we utilize different optical absorption mechanisms that are size-selective. Thus, we overcome a great challenge of laser induced self assembly by combining simultaneously large-scale character with nanometer scale precision. For subsurface plasmonic nano-structuring, on the other hand, we utilize the temperature gradients that are developed spatially across the metal/dielectric nano-composite structure during the laser treatment. We find that the developed temperature gradients are strongly depended on the nanocrystalline character of the dielectric host which determines its thermal conductivity, the composition of the ceramic/metal and the total thickness of the nano-composite film. The aforementioned material parameters combined with the laser annealing parameters can be used to pre-design the final morphology of the sub-surface plasmonic structure. The proposed processes can serve as a platform that will stimulate further progress towards the engineering of plasmonic devices

Sub-surface laser nanostructuring in stratified metal/dielectric media: a versatile platform towards flexible, durable and large-scale plasmonic writing

Laser nanostructuring of pure ultrathin metal layers or ceramic/metal composite thin films has emerged as a promising route for the fabrication of plasmonic patterns with applications in information storage, cryptography, and security tagging. However, the environmental sensitivity of pure Ag layers and the complexity of ceramic/metal composite film growth hinder the implementation of this technology to large-scale production, as well as its combination with flexible substrates. In the present work we investigate an alternative pathway, namely, starting from non-plasmonic multilayer metal/dielectric layers, whose growth is compatible with large scale production such as in-line sputtering and roll-to-roll deposition, which are then transformed into plasmonic templates by single-shot UV-laser annealing (LA). This entirely cold, large-scale process leads to a subsurface nanoconstruction involving plasmonic Ag nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in a hard and inert dielectric matrix on top of both rigid and flexible substrates. The subsurface encapsulation of Ag NPs provides durability and long-term stability, while the cold character of LA suits the use of sensitive flexible substrates. The morphology of the final composite film depends primarily on the nanocrystalline character of the dielectric host and its thermal conductivity. We demonstrate the emergence of a localized surface plasmon resonance, and its tunability depending on the applied fluence and environmental pressure. The results are well explained by theoretical photothermal modeling. Overall, our findings qualify the proposed process as an excellent candidate for versatile, large-scale optical encoding applications. Keywords : Ceramic materials; Composite films; Environmental technology; Film growth; Film preparation; Multilayer films; Multilayers; Nanocrystals; Optical data processing; Plasmons; Silver; Substrates; Surface plasmon resonance; Thin films; Ultrathin films, Laser annealing; Localised surface plasmon resonance; Multi-layer thin film; Nano-structuring; Plasmonics, Nanocomposite film

New criteria for selecting the origin of DNA replication in Wolbachia and closely related bacteria

© 2007 Ioannidis et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The definitive version was published in BMC Genomics 8 (2007): 182, doi:10.1186/1471-2164-8-182.Background: The annotated genomes of two closely related strains of the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia pipientis have been reported without the identifications of the putative origin of replication (ori). Identifying the ori of these bacteria and related alpha-Proteobacteria as well as their patterns of sequence evolution will aid studies of cell replication and cell density, as well as the potential genetic manipulation of these widespread intracellular bacteria. Results: Using features that have been previously experimentally verified in the alpha-Proteobacterium Caulobacter crescentus, the origin of DNA replication (ori) regions were identified in silico for Wolbachia strains and eleven other related bacteria belonging to Ehrlichia, Anaplasma, and Rickettsia genera. These features include DnaA-, CtrA- and IHF-binding sites as well as the flanking genes in C. crescentus. The Wolbachia ori boundary genes were found to be hemE and COG1253 protein (CBS domain protein). Comparisons of the putative ori region among related Wolbachia strains showed higher conservation of bases within binding sites. Conclusion: The sequences of the ori regions described here are only similar among closely related bacteria while fundamental characteristics like presence of DnaA and IHF binding sites as well as the boundary genes are more widely conserved. The relative paucity of CtrA binding sites in the ori regions, as well as the absence of key enzymes associated with DNA replication in the respective genomes, suggest that several of these obligate intracellular bacteria may have altered replication mechanisms. Based on these analyses, criteria are set forth for identifying the ori region in genome sequencing projects.PI, PS, SS, GT and KB acknowledge support of their work from intramural funding from the University of Ioannina. SB, JDH, LB and JW acknowledge support of their work from the U.S. National Science Foundation grant EF-0328363. SB also acknowledges the support from the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NNA04CC04A

The draft genome of strain cCpun from biting midges establishes Cardinium as a paraphyletic group, and reveals a novel gene family expansion in a symbiont

Background: It is estimated that 13% of arthropod species carry the heritable symbiont Cardinium hertigii. 16S rRNA and gyrB sequence divides this species into three clades, with the A group infecting a range of arthropods, the B group infecting nematode worms, and the C group infecting Culicoides biting midges. To date, genome sequence has only been available for strains from clade A and B, impeding general understanding of the evolutionary history of the radiation. We present a draft genome sequence for a C group Cardinium, motivated both by the paucity of genomic information outside of the A group, and the importance of Culicoides biting midge hosts as arbovirus vectors. Methods: We reconstructed the genome of cCpun, a Cardinium strain from group C that naturally infects Culicoides punctatus, through Illumina sequencing of infected host specimens. Results: The draft genome presented has high completeness, with BUSCO scores comparable to closed group A Cardinium genomes. Phylogenomic analysis based on concatenated single copy core proteins revealed that Cardinium, as currently considered, is paraphyletic, with strains of Ca. Paenicardinium endoni from nematodes nested within the two groups infecting arthropod hosts. Analysis of the genome of cCpun revealed expansion of a variety of gene families classically considered important in symbiosis (e.g. ankyrin domain containing genes), and one set – characterized by DUF1703 domains – not previously associated with symbiotic lifestyle. This protein group encodes putative secreted nucleases, and the cCpun genome carried at least 25 widely divergent paralogs, of which 24 had a common ancestor in the C group ancestor. The genome revealed no evidence in support of B vitamin provisioning to its haematophagous host, and indeed suggests Cardinium may be a net importer of biotin. Discussion: These data indicate Cardinium, as currently conceived, to be paraphyletic. The draft genome further produces new hypotheses as to the interaction of the symbiont with the midge host, in particular the biological role of DUF1703 nuclease proteins that are predicted as being secreted by cCpun, but in contrast provides no support for a role for the symbiont in provisioning the host with B vitamins.</jats:p