Protecting U.S. Intellectual Property Rights and the Challenges of Digital Piracy

According to U.S. industry and government officials, intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement has reached critical levels in the United States as well as abroad. The speed and ease with which the duplication of products protected by IPR can occur has created an urgent need for industries and governments alike to address the protection of IPR in order to keep markets open to trade in the affected goods. Copyrighted products such as software, movies, music and video recordings, and other media products have been particularly affected by inadequate IPR protection. New tools, such as writable compact discs (CDs) and, of course, the Internet have made duplication not only effortless and low-cost, but anonymous as well. This paper discusses the merits of IPR protection and its importance to the U.S. economy. It then provides background on various technical, legal, and trade policy methods that have been employed to control the infringement of IPR domestically and internationally. This is followed by an analysis of current and future challenges facing U.S. industry with regard to IPR protection, particularly the challenges presented by the Internet and digital piracy.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

VennCafe

Our senior project involved creating a simple dating application and service. From other dating applications, we observed that the logistics of scheduling a first date are a tedious way to start a conversation with someone you\u27ve never met. The main concept of our application was that it would use user schedule availability and their favorite cafes to automatically plan optimal dates. We started the project with the intent of... Working through the entire development cycle of a large project as a team Devising techniques for determining overlapping preferences, especially when handling large amounts of location and time data Exploring different languages, tools and frameworks, especially involving web front-ends and native mobile apps Gaining a brief glimpse of what it would be like to be an entrepreneur promoting a new produc

Effects of social defeat on iK-ba inflammatory signaling in male c57BL/6J

An estimated 30 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with mood and anxiety disorders. Unfortunately, many of these patients do not adequately respond to current pharmacotherapies, so developing new drugs and strategies to treat such disorders is critically important. There are only a few drugs on the market that target neuroinflammation. Thus, it's critical that we identify anti-inflammatory agents that effectively reduce neuroinflammatory responses, hereby expanding or augmenting available options for treating neurological disorders. Previous work has shown that the derivative of naltrexone, B-funaltrexamine (B-FNA), inhibits inflammatory signaling in human astrocytes in reduced expression of proinflammatory chemokines. IKBa is one of the specific signaling proteins in the inflammation pathway

MRI: Acquisition of an SEM-EDS-EBSD-CL Microanalytical System for Solid Earth and Climate Change Research

Funding from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program grant will support acquisition of an Scanning Electron Microscope with secondary and backscattered electron detectors, electron backscatter diffraction capability, and live-color cathodluminescence capability for the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Maine. The instrument will be used to support faculty and student research in geodynamics and crustal studies and studies of global climate change. The instrument will be the primary research tool of an early career researcher, but will be utilized by several faculty within the department. The scanning electron microscope facility is unique within the state of Maine and will thus operate as a regional facility for research collaboration with scientists from other universities, state government agencies, such as the Maine Geological Survey, and private industry. The facility and its personnel will also participate in outreach activities for K-12 education and the Penobscot Indian Nation

WSPEC: A waveguide filter-bank focal plane array spectrometer for millimeter wave astronomy and cosmology

Imaging and spectroscopy at (sub-)millimeter wavelengths are key frontiers in astronomy and cosmology. Large area spectral surveys with moderate spectral resolution (R=50-200) will be used to characterize large scale structure and star formation through intensity mapping surveys in emission lines such as the CO rotational transitions. Such surveys will also be used to study the SZ effect, and will detect the emission lines and continuum spectrum of individual objects. WSPEC is an instrument proposed to target these science goals. It is a channelizing spectrometer realized in rectangular waveguide, fabricated using conventional high-precision metal machining. Each spectrometer is coupled to free space with a machined feed horn, and the devices are tiled into a 2D array to fill the focal plane of the telescope. The detectors will be aluminum Lumped-Element Kinetic Inductance Detectors (LEKIDs). To target the CO lines and SZ effect, we will have bands at 135-175 GHz and 190-250 GHz, each Nyquist-sampled at R~200 resolution. Here we discuss the instrument concept and design, and successful initial testing of a WR10 (i.e. 90 GHz) prototype spectrometer. We recently tested a WR5 (180 GHz) prototype to verify that the concept works at higher frequencies, and also designed a resonant backshort structure that may further increase the optical efficiency. We are making progress towards integrating a spectrometer with a LEKID array and deploying a prototype device to a telescope for first light.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Journal of Low Temperature Physic

Synthesis of Cycloheptatriene-Containing Azetidine Lactones

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in The Journal of Organic Chemistry, copyright © 2022 American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.joc.2c00367.We prepared a collection of complex cycloheptatriene-containing azetidine lactones by applying two key photochemical reactions: “aza-Yang” cyclization and Buchner carbene insertion into aromatic rings. While photolysis of phenacyl amines leads to a rapid charge transfer and elimination, we found that a simple protonation of the amine enables the formation of azetidinols as single diastereomers. We provide evidence, through ultrafast spectroscopy, for the electron transfer from free amines in the excited state. Further, we characterize the aza-Yang reaction by establishing the dependence of the initial reaction rates on the rates of photon absorption. An unanticipated change in reactivity in morpholine analogues is explained through interactions with the tosylate anion. The Buchner reaction proceeds with a slight preference for one diastereomer over the other, and successful reaction requires electron-donating carbene-stabilizing substituents. Overall, 16 compounds were prepared over seven steps. Guided by an increase in structural complexity, efforts such as this one extend the reach of chemists into unexplored chemical space and provide useful quantities of new compounds for studies focused on their properties

Modelling of air gap membrane distillation and its application in heavy metals removal

In the present study, theoretical and experimental investigations were carried out to examine the effect of changing the operating parameters of an air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) system on the performance of electrospun and commercial membranes. These parameters include feed, cooling water temperature and feed flow rate. Analytical models were used, with the aid of MATLAB, to predict the permeate flux of AGMD based on heat and mass transfer. Heat transfer was used to predict the temperature on the membrane surface on the feed side and the thin film layer in the cooling plate on the air gap side, which was used later to calculate the vapour pressure and the permeate flux. The molecular diffusion model corresponded well with the experimental measurements in terms of predicting the permeate flux by varying the feed temperature, whilst it was poor in term of coolant temperature and feed flow rate. The results also illustrate that high rejection rates of around 99% of heavy metals can be achieved by using superhydrophobic electrospun membranes. The electrospun membrane flux increased with increasing feed tank temperature and flow rate while it was reduced with an increase of cooling line temperature