Valuation and Assessment of Patents and Patent Portfolios Through Analytical Techniques, 6 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 463 (2007)

Patents today are essential assets for many companies, especially in high technology industries. Valuation of a patent is often essential in reaching an informed business decision on a matter involving technology. However, the inherent uniqueness of a patent typically makes value assessments complex, costly, and susceptible to inaccuracies. This article presents efficient and cost-effective analytical methods for valuing patents and patent portfolios

Groupthink as Communication Process, Not Outcome

A bias of groupthink research is that it primarily examines group decisions that are viewed as catastrophic failures, such as the Bay of Pigs fiasco. An alternative approach focuses on groupthink as a faulty communication process rather than defining it by negative outcomes. Taking such an approach, this paper briefly explores some potential examples of decisions that may have involved groupthink communication processes but either had ambiguous outcomes or succeeded in accomplishing their goals. The analysis suggests the need to explore the communication processes that result in groupthink while recognizing that the outcomes may be negative, ambiguous, or even positive

The Differential Impact of a Basic Public Speaking Course on Perceived Communication Competencies in Class, Work, and Social Contexts

Communication departments generally choose between a public speaking and a hybrid course of their basic course. Previous research has shown that students\u27 perceptions of their communication competencies increase after completing a hybrid course (Ford & Wolvin, 1992, 1993). After noting similarities between public speaking and hybrid courses, this study examines students\u27 perceptions of their competencies after completing a public a speaking course. Results indicated that students\u27 perceptions of their competencies changed significantly in class, work, and social contacts in such areas as public speaking, interpersonal and group communication, interviewing, listening, and self-confidence. The largest gains were in perceptions of their classroom competencies

Neighbourhood Income and Neonatal, Postneonatal and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Mortality in Canada, 1991-2005

[À l'origine dans / Was originally part of : ESPUM - Dép. médecine sociale et préventive - Travaux et publications]CONTEXTE : La mortalité infantile a diminué au Canada depuis les années 1990 et 2000 mais nous ignorons si toutes les classes socioéconomiques ont bénéficié également de ce progrès. OBJECTIFS : La présente étude portait sur les différences entre les taux de mortalité néonatale et postnéonatale et de mort subite du nourrisson entre les différents quintiles de revenu des quartiers au Canada de 1991 à 2005. MÉTHODES : Le fichier couplé des naissances vivantes et des décès infantiles au Canada a été utilisé à l’exclusion des naissances survenues en Ontario, au Yukon, dans les Territoires du Nord-ouest et au Nunavut. Les taux de mortalité néonatale et postnéonatale et de mort subite du nourrisson ont été calculé par quintile de revenu des quartiers et par période (1991-1995, 1996-2000, 2001-2005). Les rapports de risque (RR) ont été calculés par quintile de revenu et période avec ajustement pour la province de résidence, l’âge de la mère, la parité, le sexe du nourrisson et les naissances multiples. RÉSULTATS : En zone urbaine, pour toute la période étudiée (1991- 2005), le quintile de revenu le plus pauvre avait un risque plus élevé de mortalité néonatale (RR ajusté 1,24; IC 95% 1,15-1,34), de mortalité postnéonatale (RR ajusté 1,58; IC 95% 1,41-1,76) et de mort subite du nourrisson (RR ajusté 1,83; IC 95% 1,49-2,26) par rapport au quintile le plus riche. Les taux de mortalité post néonatale et de mort subite du nourrisson ont décliné respectivement de 37 % et de 57 % de 1991- 1995 à 2001-2005 alors que le taux de mortalité néonatale n’a pas changé de façon significative. Cette diminution de la mortalité postnéonatale et de la mort subite du nourrisson a été observée dans tous les quintiles de revenu. CONCLUSION : Malgré une diminution de la mortalité postnéonatale et du syndrome de mort subite du nourrisson dans tous les quintiles de revenu, les inégalités subsistent au Canada. Ce résultat démontre le besoin de stratégies efficaces de promotion de la santé visant spécifiquement les populations vulnérables. MOTS CLÉS : mort subite du nourrisson; mortalité infantile; statut socioéconomiqu

Factorization scheme and scale dependence in diffractive dijet production at low Q^2

We calculate diffractive dijet production in deep-inelastic scattering at next-to-leading order of perturbative QCD, including contributions from direct and resolved photons, and compare our predictions to preliminary data from the H1 collaboration at HERA. We study how the cross section depends on the factorization scheme and scale M_\gamma at the virtual photon vertex for the occurrence of factorization breaking. The strong M_\gamma-dependence, which is present when only the resolved cross section is suppressed, is tamed by introducing the suppression also into the initial-state NLO correction of the direct part.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Dislocation Dynamics in an Anisotropic Stripe Pattern

The dynamics of dislocations confined to grain boundaries in a striped system are studied using electroconvection in the nematic liquid crystal N4. In electroconvection, a striped pattern of convection rolls forms for sufficiently high driving voltages. We consider the case of a rapid change in the voltage that takes the system from a uniform state to a state consisting of striped domains with two different wavevectors. The domains are separated by domain walls along one axis and a grain boundary of dislocations in the perpendicular direction. The pattern evolves through dislocation motion parallel to the domain walls. We report on features of the dislocation dynamics. The kinetics of the domain motion are quantified using three measures: dislocation density, average domain wall length, and the total domain wall length per area. All three quantities exhibit behavior consistent with power law evolution in time, with the defect density decaying as $t^{-1/3}$, the average domain wall length growing as $t^{1/3}$, and the total domain wall length decaying as $t^{-1/5}$. The two different exponents are indicative of the anisotropic growth of domains in the system.Comment: 8 figures: 7 jpeg and 1 pd