What, if Any, Are the Ethical Obligations of the U.S. Patent Office? A Closer Look at the Biological Sampling of Indigenous Groups

The patenting of biological resources collected from indigenous groups has become a controversial trend. Two U.S. patents in particular, one claiming a cell-line from a 26-year old Guayami woman and one claiming a leukemia virus from a Hagahai man in Papua New Guinea, demonstrate just how volatile this issue has become. This iBrief examines how, in light of such ethically questionable patents, the U.S. Patent Office has failed to implement any procedures to identify or curb patent applications involving indigenous peoples

Linear filtering with fractional Brownian motion in the signal and observation processes

Integral equations for the mean-square estimate are obtained for the linear filtering problem, in which the noise generating the signal is a fractional Brownian motion with Hurst index h∈(3/4,1) and the noise in the observation process includes a fractional Brownian motion as well as a Wiener process. AMS subject classifications: 93E11, 60G20, 60G35

Quantum Interference of Force

We show that a quantum particle subjected to a positive force in one path of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and a null force in the other path may receive a negative average momentum transfer when it leaves the interferometer by a particular exit. In this scenario, an ensemble of particles may receive an average momentum in the opposite direction of the applied force due to quantum interference, a behavior with no classical analogue. We discuss some experimental schemes that could verify the effect with current technology, with electrons or neutrons in Mach-Zehnder interferometers in free space and with atoms from a Bose-Einstein condensate.Comment: 5 figures. Accepted in Quantum on 2018-12-0

Trade and Growth under Limited Liberalization, The Case of Belarus

This paper studies the connection between trade and growth in the context of a partial and inconsistent liberalization process in a specific Eastern European country in transition towards market economy, namely, the Republic of Belarus. The analysis of the country trade patterns during the USSR period and the years since independence revealed that unlike its close neighbors (the Baltic States and Poland) Belarus did not succeed in changing the commodity or the geographical structure of its trade. It is almost a good representation of reality to say that Belarus trades with Russia. The assessment of the rationale for the closer integration with Russia and the impact of this process on Belarus growth led us to the conclusion that the integration in the form of a non-exclusive Free Trade Area and within the framework of a wider set of international connections rather than the move towards a Customs Union (and a Union State) with Russia would be a more optimal policy for Belarus. This conclusion is supported by the results of country-specific growth regressions and of a counterfactual "free trade experiment" via a small CGE modelBelarus transition trade liberalization

Preparation of an ultra-cold sample of ammonia molecules for precision measurements

We present experiments in which an ultra-cold sample of ammonia molecules is released from an electrostatic trap and recaptured after a variable time. It is shown that, by performing adiabatic cooling before releasing the molecules and adiabatic re-compression after they are recaptured, we are able to observe molecules even after more than 10 ms of free expansion. A coherent measurement performed during this time will have a statistical uncertainty that decreases approximately as the inverse of the square root of the expansion time. This offers interesting prospects for high-resolution spectroscopy and precision tests of fundamental physics theories

OPTIMAL CROP INSURANCE OPTIONS FOR ALABAMA COTTON-PEANUT PRODUCERS: A TARGET-MOTAD ANALYSIS

Target-MOTAD was used to determine the optimal crop insurance options for two representative cotton and peanut farms in southern Alabama. Results showed that, for one of the farms, no crop insurance option was risk reducing given the yield history. For the other farm, risk reduction involved shifting to higher levels of insurance coverage.Risk and Uncertainty,

Model Atmospheres for X-ray Bursting Neutron Stars

The hydrogen and helium accreted by X-ray bursting neutron stars is periodically consumed in runaway thermonuclear reactions that cause the entire surface to glow brightly in X-rays for a few seconds. With models of the emission, the mass and radius of the neutron star can be inferred from the observations. By simultaneously probing neutron star masses and radii, X-ray bursts are one of the strongest diagnostics of the nature of matter at extremely high densities. Accurate determinations of these parameters are difficult, however, due to the highly non-ideal nature of the atmospheres where X-ray bursts occur. Observations from X-ray telescopes such as RXTE and NuStar can potentially place strong constraints on nuclear matter once uncertainties in atmosphere models have been reduced. Here we discuss current progress on modeling atmospheres of X-ray bursting neutron stars and some of the challenges still to be overcome.Comment: 25 pages, 14 figure