Tax Incentives for Innovation in a Modern IP Ecosystem

Technological innovation is a long-recognized catalyst for economic growth in the United States, and its promotion is an important feature of national economic policy, as evidenced by the presence of various tax incentives for innovation in the US Internal Revenue Code. Tax incentives are an important means by which governments can deliver subsidies to promote such innovation. To be effective, however, any system of tax incentives must be tailored for current economic conditions and competitive landscapes. In the current ecosystem of innovation in the United States, this means that, at the very least, the incentives for innovation in the US Internal Revenue Code should narrowly deliver benefits to entities that create, transfer, and productively use intellectual property (IP). Moreover, there should be no opportunities for nonpracticing entities to misappropriate such benefits. But there currently are. This Article surveys the current regime of tax incentives for technological innovation and other areas of the US Internal Revenue Code affecting the economic choices of entities involved in the creation and dissemination of technological IP. It illustrates instances within the US Internal Revenue Code and its regulations where distinguishing between the good guys (operating companies and IP intermediaries) and the bad guys (nonpracticing entities) would better tailor the incentives therein to promote innovation in the modern IP ecosystem

Strategies to Improve Music Perception in Cochlear Implantees

Cochlear implants have been an effective device for the management of patients with total or profound hearing loss over the past few decades. Significant improvements in speech and language can be observed in implantees following rehabilitation. In spite of remarkable linguistic perception, however, it is difficult for these patients to enjoy music although we did see some “superstars” for music performance in our patients. This article aimed to clarify current opinions on the strategies to improve music perception ability in this population of subjects. In part I, we included one of our previous work (Chen et al., 2010) talking about the effect of music training on pitch perception in prelingually deafened children with a cochlear implant. In part II, other factors related to the improvement of music perception in cochlear implantees were discussed, including residual hearing, bimodal hearing, and coding strategies. Evidences from results of our researches and from literature review will both be presented.18 page(s

Titan Atmospheric Chemistry Revealed by Low-temperature N2-CH4 Plasma Discharge Experiments

Chemistry in Titan's N2-CH4 atmosphere produces complex organic aerosols. The chemical processes and the resulting organic compounds are still far from understood, although extensive observations, laboratory, and theoretical simulations have greatly improved physical and chemical constraints on Titan's atmosphere. Here, we conduct a series of Titan atmosphere simulation experiments with N2-CH4 gas mixtures and investigate the effect of initial CH4 ratio, pressure, and flow rate on the production rates and composition of the gas and solid products at a Titan relevant temperature (100 K) for the first time. We find that the production rate of the gas and solid products increases with increasing CH4 ratio. The nitrogen-containing species have much higher yield than hydrocarbons in the gas products, and the N-to-C ratio of the solid products appears to be the highest compared to previous plasma simulations with the same CH4 ratio. The greater degree of nitrogen incorporation in the low temperature simulation experiments suggests temperature may play an important role in nitrogen incorporation in Titan's cold atmosphere. We also find that H2 is the dominant gas product and serves as an indicator of the production rate of new organic molecules in the experiment, and that CH2NH may greatly contribute to the incorporation of both carbon and nitrogen into the solid particles. The pressure and flow rate affect the amount of time of the gas mixture exposed to the energy source and therefore impact the N2-CH4 chemistry initiated by the plasma discharge, emphasizing the influence of the energy flux in Titan atmospheric chemistry.Comment: Accepted in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, 6 figure

A test of adaptive strategy theory using fifteen years of change in coral abundance

Universal Adaptive Strategy Theory aims to predict how taxa and assemblages respond to disturbances on the basis of adaptive strategy group (ASG) membership. Here, we test such predictions using the adaptive strategy scheme for reef-building corals developed by Darling et al. (Ecol Lett 15:1378–1386, 2012) and a long-term dataset of coral assemblage structure from inshore reefs on the central Great Barrier Reef. Several disturbances including mass bleaching and tropical storms were recorded in this 15-year interval from 1998 to 2013. ASG membership did not predict how a given taxon responded to disturbance. In fact, all ASGs were on average equally affected by bleaching and a period of multiple disturbances. Furthermore, there were no consistent winners at these sites in response to the 1998 bleaching in contrast to previous work suggesting clear hierarchies in susceptibility to bleaching. In conclusion, while further efforts to re-evaluate the utility of ASGs for reef corals should be encouraged our results and a re-examination of the literature suggests that direct trait-based approaches might prove more useful when exploring how corals respond to disturbance

Disruption of mesoderm formation during cardiac differentiation due to developmental exposure to 13-cis-retinoic acid.

13-cis-retinoic acid (isotretinoin, INN) is an oral pharmaceutical drug used for the treatment of skin acne, and is also a known teratogen. In this study, the molecular mechanisms underlying INN-induced developmental toxicity during early cardiac differentiation were investigated using both human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Pre-exposure of hiPSCs and hESCs to a sublethal concentration of INN did not influence cell proliferation and pluripotency. However, mesodermal differentiation was disrupted when INN was included in the medium during differentiation. Transcriptomic profiling by RNA-seq revealed that INN exposure leads to aberrant expression of genes involved in several signaling pathways that control early mesoderm differentiation, such as TGF-beta signaling. In addition, genome-wide chromatin accessibility profiling by ATAC-seq suggested that INN-exposure leads to enhanced DNA-binding of specific transcription factors (TFs), including HNF1B, SOX10 and NFIC, often in close spatial proximity to genes that are dysregulated in response to INN treatment. Altogether, these results identify potential molecular mechanisms underlying INN-induced perturbation during mesodermal differentiation in the context of cardiac development. This study further highlights the utility of human stem cells as an alternative system for investigating congenital diseases of newborns that arise as a result of maternal drug exposure during pregnancy

Salvage of a failed open gastrocutaneous fistula repair with an endoscopic over-the-scope clip

AbstractOnce enteral access via gastrostomy tube (G-tube) is no longer indicated, the tube is typically removed in clinic with a high probability of spontaneous closure. When spontaneous closure is not achieved, the formation of a gastrocutaneous fistula (GCF) is possible. The incidence of GCF is directly related with the length of time the tube has been placed. When conservative management fails, surgical intervention is the standard treatment. Endoscopic techniques have been described for primary closure of GCF in adults including banding and cauterizing of the fistula tract with placement of a standard endoscopic clip. Over-the-scope clips (OTSC) have recently been reported in primary GCF closure in children (Wright et al., 2015). In patients with skin irritation surrounding a GCF making surgical repair difficult, endoscopic OTSC closure provides particular benefit. It is our belief that this is the first case report of endoscopically salvaging a leak from a failed open GCF repair

A chemical-genetic strategy reveals distinct temporal requirements for SAD-1 kinase in neuronal polarization and synapse formation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Neurons assemble into a functional network through a sequence of developmental processes including neuronal polarization and synapse formation. In <it>Caenorhabditis elegans</it>, the serine/threonine SAD-1 kinase is essential for proper neuronal polarity and synaptic organization. To determine if SAD-1 activity regulates the establishment or maintenance of these neuronal structures, we examined its temporal requirements using a chemical-genetic method that allows for selective and reversible inactivation of its kinase activity <it>in vivo</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We generated a PP1 analog-sensitive variant of SAD-1. Through temporal inhibition of SAD-1 kinase activity we show that its activity is required for the establishment of both neuronal polarity and synaptic organization. However, while SAD-1 activity is needed strictly when neurons are polarizing, the temporal requirement for SAD-1 is less stringent in synaptic organization, which can also be re-established during maintenance.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study reports the first temporal analysis of a neural kinase activity using the chemical-genetic system. It reveals that neuronal polarity and synaptic organization have distinct temporal requirements for SAD-1.</p