The strategic use of business method patents: a pilot study of out of court settlements

A patent is an exclusive right preventing the use or exploitation of an invention by others than the owner of the patent. A patent can be accurately described as a statutory monopoly within the scope and the jurisdiction of its grant. Proprietary positions in electronic commerce are particularly critical because of the low barriers to entry in the digital environment, and the huge potential value buried in reengineering supply chains and direct retailing services

Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies from Scaling Seeds: Generic Properties of the Correlation Functions

In this work we present a partially new method to analyze fluctuations which are induced by causal scaling seeds. We show that the power spectra due to this kind of seed perturbations are determined by five analytic functions, which we determine numerically for a special example. We put forward the view that, even if recent work disfavors the models with cosmic strings and global O(4) texture, causal scaling seed perturbations merit a more thorough and general analysis, which we initiate in this paper.Comment: LaTeX file with RevTex, 6 pages, 6 PS figs., submitted to Phys. Rev. D. A version with higher quality images can be found at http://mykonos.unige.ch/~kunz

Microwave Background Anisotropies Induced by Global Scalar Fields: The Large N Limit

We present an analysis of CMB anisotropies induced by global scalar fields in the large N limit. In this limit, the CMB anisotropy spectrum can be determined without cumbersome 3D simulations. We determine the source functions and their unequal time correlation functions and show that they are quite similar to the corresponding functions in the texture model. This leads us to the conclusion that the large N limit provides a 'cheap approximation' to the texture model of structure formation.Comment: 11 pages Latex, 5 postscript figures include

Variations on a middle class theme: English primary schools in socially advantaged contexts

Multiple contexts interact to position any school on a spectrum from cumulatively advantaged to cumulatively disadvantaged. This article discusses a study of the contextual advantages and disadvantages experienced by primary schools in the south east of England, concentrating especially on schools in the least deprived 5% of schools nationally. The research highlights the central influence of advantaged socioeconomic contexts on day‐to‐day school processes and on the related perspectives and beliefs of head teachers as well as variations on this theme related to other external and internal contextual variables. It illustrates that England’s most socially advantaged primary schools are likely to have much in common including a high level of parent involvement, a strong focus on student learning and progress, considerable ability to raise funds, very good reputations and only a handful of students with serious learning or behavioural problems. They also have in common middle class forms of transience and profiles of special needs. The article concludes that while contextual variations amongst socially advantaged schools do exist and are talked up by head teachers, they usually have an impact that can be managed

Acoustic design considerations: Review of rotor acoustic sources

It is not sufficient to optimize a rotor design in terms of a single noise level calculated for a single flight condition and a single measurement location. The various noise sources, their frequency content, amplitude, and directivity as a function of operating condition must be considered. A summary of the frequency ranges, directivity patterns and the most important operational and design parameters for major rotor noise sources is presented. It is difficult to generalize design requirements for rotor noise because the acoustic output varies so widely depending on the noise source, flight condition, measurement location, and frequency range. However, assuming the rotor must lift a fixed nominal payload and operate over a wide range of flight conditions, three general design guidelines can be stated: (1) minimize tip Mach number; (2) minimize blade thickness in the tip region; and (3) minimize gradients in the spanwise lift distribution in the tip region. Constraints on blade thickness, maximum values for hover tip Mach number, advancing tip Mach number and spanwise lift coefficient gradient will be specified during the aerodynamic, dynamic and structural optimization process. The rotor noise sources to be considered include the low frequency loading and thickness noise, and the higher frequency noise due to blade-vortex interactions (BVI). The analyses to be employed will include the comprehensive rotor analysis and design program CAMRAD and the rotor noise prediction program WOPWOP

Using Your Library’s Objectives as the Organizational Framework for Library Documentation in Planning, Assessment, and Accreditation

The San Diego Christian/Southern California Seminary Library1 uses its objectives as the organizational framework for its strategic plan, annual report, assessment plan, and policies and procedures manual. This article describes how the library’s objectives compare to the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Standards (to ensure best practices), relate to the areas covered in the library strategic plan, annual report, and operations manual, and correspond to the standards and criteria from their respective accrediting agencies, showing how easy it is to identify supporting evidence for a program review or self-study when using this organizing method

Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies from Global Texture

We investigate the global texture model of structure formation in cosmogonies with non-zero cosmological constant for different values of the Hubble parameter. We find that the absence of significant acoustic peaks and little power on large scales are robust predictions of these models. However, from a careful comparison with experiments we conclude that at present we cannot safely reject the model on the grounds of published CMB anisotropy data. If bias is close to one on large scales, galaxy correlation data rules out the models. New, very stringent constraints come from peculiar velocities. Investigating the large-N limit, we argue that our main conclusions apply to all global O(N) models of structure formation.Comment: 20 page LaTeX file, 11 postscript figs. included, proceedings to the EC conference on 3K Cosmology in Rome, Oct. 9

Using Web‐based support for campus‐based open learning: Lessons from a study in dental public health

There has been much written about the use of the Web in higher education, much of which advocates its use as an effective way of supporting learning, particularly in terms of the desirability of features such as flexibility and the value of online discussions. In this paper, a case study is described which calls some of this received wisdom into question. The study also explores wider issues of curriculum design, particularly in terms of the role of assessment and of self‐assessment, both of which played a crucial role in the course. Unlike many studies, then, the purpose of this paper is not to demonstrate the success of a particular approach or to advocate particular forms of practice, but instead to highlight the shortcomings of existing guidelines for curriculum development in this area. This suggests that further inquiry into this form of education is required — and in particular, inquiry that pays detailed attention to the backgrounds of learners, and involves close study of their experiences

N-body methods for relativistic cosmology

We present a framework for general relativistic N-body simulations in the regime of weak gravitational fields. In this approach, Einstein's equations are expanded in terms of metric perturbations about a Friedmann-Lema\^itre background, which are assumed to remain small. The metric perturbations themselves are only kept to linear order, but we keep their first spatial derivatives to second order and treat their second spatial derivatives as well as sources of stress-energy fully non-perturbatively. The evolution of matter is modelled by an N-body ensemble which can consist of free-streaming nonrelativistic (e.g. cold dark matter) or relativistic particle species (e.g. cosmic neutrinos), but the framework is fully general and also allows for other sources of stress-energy, in particular additional relativistic sources like modified-gravity models or topological defects. We compare our method with the traditional Newtonian approach and argue that relativistic methods are conceptually more robust and flexible, at the cost of a moderate increase of numerical difficulty. However, for a LambdaCDM cosmology, where nonrelativistic matter is the only source of perturbations, the relativistic corrections are expected to be small. We quantify this statement by extracting post-Newtonian estimates from Newtonian N-body simulations.Comment: 30 pages, 3 figures. Invited contribution to a Classical and Quantum Gravity focus issue on "Relativistic Effects in Cosmology", edited by Kazuya Koyam