Fictionalia as Modal Artifacts

Th ere is much controversy surrounding the nature of the relation between fictional individuals and possible individuals. Some have argued that no fictional individual is a possible individual; others have argued that (some) fictional individuals just are (merely) possible individuals. In this paper, I off er further grounds for believing the theory of fictional individuals defended by Amie Thomasson,viz., Artifactualism, by arguing that her view best allows one to make sense of this puzzling relation. More specifically, when we realize that the view allows for an identification of merely possible individuals with fictional individuals, we seethat the utility, and hence the level of credence lent to Artifactualism, is increased. After arguing for this thesis, I respond to three of the most pressing worries

The City of Oil & Water: The Rise and Fall of an American Landscape

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The Policy Implications of Granting Patent Protection to Computer Software: An Economic Analysis

This Note analyzes the propriety of granting patent law protection to computer software by viewing this problem from economic, legal, public and technological policy perspectives. Part II explains the relationship between computer hardware and software, discusses the role of algorithms in software development,and traces the development of the computer software industry.Part III analyzes the economic policies underlying the patent system. Part IV identifies the patent law principles that are relevant to the software patentability issue and discusses their underlying policy foundations. Part V examines the Supreme Court\u27s application of these principles in the leading software patent cases and concludes that the Court\u27s failure to understand computer technology has caused it to withhold patent protection from computer software. Part V reveals that the Supreme Court has mischaracterized software algorithms by treating them as unpatentable mathematical laws. Part VI of this Note analyzes the benefits and costs of granting patent protection to computer software and demonstrates the compelling societal need for this protection. \u27Part VI also proposes an addition to the Patent Office of a small staff of computer science experts to remedy the administrative problem of processing software patent applications

Effect of Staff Training and Cost Support on Provision of Long-Acting Reversible Contraception in Community Health Centers

Objective To compare the proportion of women receiving same-day long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) between two different models of contraceptive provision adapted from the Contraceptive CHOICE Project. Study Design We used a controlled time-trend study design to compare 502 women receiving structured contraceptive counseling in addition to usual care (“Enhanced Care”) to 506 women receiving counseling plus healthcare provider education and cost support for LARC (“Complete CHOICE”) at three federally qualified health centers. We provided funds to health centers to ensure an “on-the-shelf” supply and no-cost LARC for uninsured women. We recorded the contraceptive method chosen after contraceptive counseling and the healthcare provider appointment as well as the contraceptive method received that day. Among women choosing LARC, we calculated proportions and performed Poisson regression with robust error variance to estimate relative risks for same-day insertion. Results Participant demographics reflected the health center populations; 69% were black, 66% had a high school diploma or less, 57% were publicly insured, and 75% reported household income less than 101% federal poverty line. There were 153 (30.5%) women in “Enhanced Care” and 273 (54.0%) in “Complete CHOICE” who chose LARC (p<0.01). Among women who chose LARC (n=426), those in “Complete CHOICE” were more likely to receive a same-day insertion, 53.8% vs. 13.7% (RRadj 4.73; 95%CI 3.20-6.98) compared to “Enhanced Care.” Conclusions A contraceptive care model that included healthcare provider education and cost support for LARC in addition to structured contraceptive counseling resulted in higher rates of same-day LARC insertion compared to contraceptive counseling and usual care alone

Integrated chemical sensors based on carbon black and polymer films using a standard CMOS process and post-processing

We present an integrated chemical sensor array fabricated using a CMOS process followed by post-processing. The sensor presented in this paper incorporates 324 individually addressable sensing nodes. Post processing involves an electroless nickel and gold plating step to fabricate sensing contacts, and the deposition of a carbon black based polymer sensor material. The operation of the integrated sensor is confirmed. This sensor technology will allow the creation of large arrays of chemically diverse sensors

Reflective Ghost Imaging through Turbulence

Recent work has indicated that ghost imaging may have applications in standoff sensing. However, most theoretical work has addressed transmission-based ghost imaging. To be a viable remote-sensing system, the ghost imager needs to image rough-surfaced targets in reflection through long, turbulent optical paths. We develop, within a Gaussian-state framework, expressions for the spatial resolution, image contrast, and signal-to-noise ratio of such a system. We consider rough-surfaced targets that create fully developed speckle in their returns, and Kolmogorov-spectrum turbulence that is uniformly distributed along all propagation paths. We address both classical and nonclassical optical sources, as well as a computational ghost imager.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure