The software patent experiment.

Over the past two decades, the scope of technologies that can be patented has been expanded to include many items previously thought unsuitable for patenting, for example, computer software. Today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office grants 20,000 or more software patents a year. Conventional wisdom holds that extending patent protection to computer programs will stimulate research and development and, thus, increase the rate of innovation. In "The Software Patent Experiment," Bob Hunt and Jim Bessen investigate whether this has, in fact, happened. They describe the spectacular growth in software patenting, who obtains patents, and the relationship between a sharp focus on software patenting and firms' investment in R&D.Patents

An empirical look at software patents

U.S. legal changes have made it easier to obtain patents on inventions that use software. Software patents have grown rapidly and now comprise 15 percent of all patents. They are acquired primarily by large manufacturing firms in industries known for strategic patenting; only 5 percent belong to software publishers. The very large increase in software patent propensity over time is not adequately explained by changes in R&D investments, employment of computer programmers, or productivity growth. The residual increase in patent propensity is consistent with a sizeable rise in the cost effectiveness of software patents during the 1990s. We find evidence that software patents substitute for R&D at the firm level; they are associated with lower R&D intensity. This result occurs primarily in industries known for strategic patenting and is difficult to reconcile with the traditional incentive theory of patentsPatents

USING ABSOLUTE DEVIATIONS TO COMPUTE LINES OF BEST FIT

Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

A STUDY OF CONTAINERS USED FOR FRESH MEAT

Examines the proliferation in container types and sizes currently in use for fresh shipment. Suggests an approach to develop appropriate container sizes to remedy the problem and improve pallet utilization.Agribusiness,

Multimode interference devices for focusing in microfluidic channels

Low-cost, compact, automated optical microsystems for chemical analysis, such as microflow cytometers for identification of individual biological cells, require monolithically integrated microlenses for focusing in microfluidic channels, to enable high-resolution scattering and fluorescence measurements. The multimode interference device (MMI), which makes use of self-imaging in multimode waveguides, is shown to be a simple and effective alternative to the microlens for microflow cytometry. The MMIs have been designed, realized, and integrated with microfluidic channels in a silica-based glass waveguide material system. Focal spot sizes of 2.4 µm for MMIs have been measured at foci as far as 43.7 µm into the microfluidic channel

Proceedings of an ESA-NASA Workshop on a Joint Solid Earth Program

The NASA geodynamics program; spaceborne magnetometry; spaceborne gravity gradiometry (characterizing the data type); terrestrial gravity data and comparisons with satellite data; GRADIO three-axis electrostatic accelerometers; gradiometer accommodation on board a drag-free satellite; gradiometer mission spectral analysis and simulation studies; and an opto-electronic accelerometer system were discussed

Observations of the Vertical Structure of Tidal Currents in Two Inlets

Observations of the vertical structure of broad band tidal currents were obtained at two energetic inlets. Each experiment took place over a 4 week period, the first at Hampton Inlet in southeastern New Hampshire, USA, in the Fall of 2011, and the second at New River Inlet in southern North Carolina, USA, in the spring of 2012. The temporal variation and vertical structure of the currents were observed at each site with 600 kHz and 1200 kHz RDI Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCP) deployed on low-profile bottom tripods in 7.5 and 12.5 m water depths near the entrance to Hampton Inlet, and in 8 and 9 m water depth within and outside New River Inlet, respectively. In addition, a Nortek Aquapro ADCP was mounted on a jetted pipe in about 2.5 m water depth on the flank of the each inlet channel. Flows within the Hampton/Seabrook Inlet were dominated by semi-diurnal tides ranging 2.5 - 4 m in elevation, with velocities exceeding 2.5 m/s. Flows within New River inlet were also semi-diurnal with tides ranging about 1 – 1.5 m in elevation and with velocities exceeding 1.5 m/s. Vertical variation in the flow structure at the dominant tidal frequency are examined as a function of location within and near the inlet. Outside the inlet, velocities vary strongly over the vertical, with a nearly linear decay from the surface to near the bottom. The coherence between the upper most velocity bin and the successively vertically separated bins drops off quickly with depth, with as much as 50% coherence decay over the water column. The phase relative to the uppermost velocity bin shifts over depth, with as much as 40 deg phase lag over the vertical, with bottom velocities leading the surface. Offshore, rotary coefficients indicate a stable ellipse orientation with rotational directions consistent over the vertical. At Hampton, the shallower ADCP, but still outside the inlet, shows a rotational structure that changes sign in the vertical indicating a sense of rotation at the bottom that is opposite to that at the surface. Within the inlet, the flow is more aligned with the channel, the decay in amplitude over the vertical is diminished, the coherence and phase structure is nearly uniform, and the rotary coefficients indicate no sense of rotation in the flow. The observations are qualitatively consistent with behavior described by Prandle (1982) for shallow water tidal flows

Method and apparatus for laminar flow control

A method of installing a compressible insert in an exterior surface of a body is disclosed. There is also disclosed a laminar flow control arrangement that may be produced by such method