Patent Scope and Innovation in the Software Industry

Software patents have received a great deal of attention in the academic literature. Unfortunately, most of that attention has been devoted to the problem of whether software is or should be patentable subject matter. With roughly eighty thousand software patents already issued, and the Federal Circuit endorsing patentability without qualification, those questions are for the history books. The more pressing questions now concern the scope to be accorded software patents. In this Article, we examine the implications of some traditional patent law doctrines for innovation in the software industry. We argue that patent law needs some refinement if it is to promote rather than impede the growth of this new market, which is characterized by rapid sequential innovation, reuse and re-combination of components, and strong network effects that privilege interoperable components and products

Evaluation of Salmonella Enteritidis and Escherichia coli O157:H7 Volatile Organic Compound Analysis for Food Safety Monitoring: a Preliminary Study

Food borne illness has the potential to impact every point of production from producers to consumers. Food product recalls are common due to the presence of food borne illness causing bacteria. Detection of volatile organic compounds (VOC) have the potential to reduce the number of illnesses and recalls through application of additional monitoring of food products like those most commonly recalled. The objective of this research was to 1) explore the use of closed-loop headspace analysis coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) on food borne illness causing bacteria and 2) examine the VOC profile of Escherichia coli serotype O157:H7 in both tryptic soy broth (TSB) and ground beef. Escherichia coli JM109, Escherichia coli DH5α, and Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis ATCC 13076 were chosen to determine potential of bacteria to produce compounds not observed in their controls. A closed-loop headspace analysis was utilized to collect headspace VOCs through the use of glass absorbent filters filled with Alltech HaySep-Q™ PoraPak-Q™ that were then eluted with dichloromethane. Eluted VOC samples were analyzed by GC-MS. Results of analysis were evaluated for peak differences. Both E. coli strains grown in TSB produced typical indole peaks during 2 different lengths (24 hours and 5 hours) of VOC collection in addition to four and five peaks from E. coli JM109 and E. coli DH5α, respectively, that were not observed in their controls. S. Enteritidis grown under optimal conditions in liquid egg produced a profile in which seven compounds were detected in the inoculated liquid egg, but not observed in control after a 6-hour VOC collection. A 2-hour collection series produced inconsistent results suggesting that a collection of 2 hours may require a more sensitive GC-MS analysis or headspace collection. Escherichia coli serotype O157:H7 ATCC 43985 grown in TSB and ground beef were subjected to headspace VOC collection utilizing the closed-loop system for analysis. E. coli O157:H7 VOC analysis displayed 34 peaks of interest with 4 of these peaks not being detected in the control of sterile TSB at retention times of 8.722, 9.402, 20.919, and 30.777. Ground beef inoculated with E. coli O157:H7 displayed 48 peaks of interest with 22 compounds only appearing in the bacteria inoculated ground beef and not the control of uninoculated ground beef. This study has contributed to the foundation of VOC application within food safety and can be used to guide future research utilizing this methodology

An experimental investigation of high amplitude panel flutter

Aluminum panel flutter tests at supersonic Mach number

A method for predicting the panel flutter fatigue life of Saturn 5 panels

Development of method for predicting fatigue life of panels under flutter conditions with application to Saturn 5 launch vehicle structure

Using pre-stimulus EEG to predict driver reaction time to road events

The ability to predict a driver's reaction time to road events could be used in driver safety assistance systems, allowing for autonomous control when a driver may be about to react with sup-optimal performance. In this paper, we evaluate a number of machine learning and feature engineering strategies that we use to predict the reaction time(s) of 24 drivers to road events using EEG (Electroencephalography) captured in an immersive driving simulator. Subject-independent models are trained and evaluated using EEG features extracted from time periods that precede the road events that we predict the reaction times for. Our paper has two contributions: 1) we predict the reaction times corresponding to individual road events using EEG spectral features from a time period before the onset of the road event, i.e. we take EEG data from 2 seconds before the event, and 2) we predict whether a subject will be a slow or fast responder compared to other drivers

The advanced cyberinfrastructure research and education facilitators virtual residency: Toward a national cyberinfrastructure workforce

An Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Research and Education Facilitator (ACI-REF) works directly with researchers to advance the computing- and data-intensive aspects of their research, helping them to make effective use of Cyberinfrastructure (CI). The University of Oklahoma (OU) is leading a national "virtual residency" program to prepare ACI-REFs to provide CI facilitation to the diverse populations of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) researchers that they serve. Until recently, CI Facilitators have had no education or training program; the Virtual Residency program addresses this national need by providing: (1) training, specifically (a) summer workshops and (b) third party training opportunity alerts; (2) a community of CI Facilitators, enabled by (c) a biweekly conference call and (d) a mailing list

Patenting and licensing of university research: promoting innovation or undermining academic values?

Since the 1980s in the US and the 1990s in Europe, patenting and licensing activities by universities have massively increased. This is strongly encouraged by governments throughout the Western world. Many regard academic patenting as essential to achieve 'knowledge transfer' from academia to industry. This trend has far-reaching consequences for access to the fruits of academic research and so the question arises whether the current policies are indeed promoting innovation or whether they are instead a symptom of a pro-intellectual property (IP) culture which is blind to adverse effects. Addressing this question requires both empirical analysis (how real is the link between academic patenting and licensing and 'development' of academic research by industry?) and normative assessment (which justifications are given for the current policies and to what extent do they threaten important academic values?). After illustrating the major rise of academic patenting and licensing in the US and Europe and commenting on the increasing trend of 'upstream' patenting and the focus on exclusive as opposed to non-exclusive licences, this paper will discuss five negative effects of these trends. Subsequently, the question as to why policymakers seem to ignore these adverse effects will be addressed. Finally, a number of proposals for improving university policies will be made

Trade secrets law

The standardisation of trade secret protection was one of the goals of the TRIPs Agreement of 1998. Nevertheless, substantial differences in this protection remain across jurisdictions. When defining the optimal scope of trade secrets law, lawmakers should be aware that strong trade secret protection is likely to promote inventiveness, but it is also likely to hinder the diffusion of knowledge and prevent competition