Just Who Is the Person Having Ordinary Skill in the Art? Patent Law\u27s Mysterious Personage

Various patent validity and infringement questions are decided against the standard of the person having ordinary skill in the art (Phosita). For example, under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a), an invention must be nonobvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to be granted a patent. In this context, the Federal Circuit has set out six factors for measuring the level of skill of Phosita, yet the court has provided remarkably little guidance in their use and their relationship to nonobviousness. This situation has led to confusion and difficulties among courts trying to assess Phosita\u27s skill. This Comment argues that the current factors must be abandoned or modified, and suggests new factors which more accurately reflect the underlying purpose of the Phosita standard

Our Parents, Ourselves: Health Care for an Aging Population; A Report of the Dartmouth Atlas Project

The new Dartmouth Atlas, funded by The John A. Hartford Foundation, is a report card that analyzes Medicare data to show us where the United States is making progress in patient-centered, evidence-based care for Medicare beneficiaries and where improvement is still needed. It also offers insight into regional variations in care.Filling in the gaps in our knowledge about the state of care across the country will help health care providers, health systems, and patients and families work together to improve care for all older adults.This Dartmouth Atlas report looks at a number of measures from Medicare data, including:The number of days older adults spend in contact with the health care system;Use of high-risk medications;Cancer screening rates (and how they compare with recommendations);30-day hospital readmission rates;Annual Wellness Visit (AWV) rates;Late hospice referral; andThe number of days spent in intensive care.The report also offers a historical look at key practices, comparing data from 2003-05 and 2012

Synactic structure and its effects on performance in a second language

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D37051/81 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Exploring the relationship between productive vocabulary knowledge and second language oral ability

The current study investigated the extent to which L2 learners’ productive vocabulary knowledge could predict multiple dimensions of spontaneous speech production. A total of 39 EFL participants with varying L2 proficiency levels first completed a productive vocabulary knowledge task (Lex30). Their spontaneous speech, elicited via a series of picture description task, was then assessed for comprehensibility (i.e., ease of understanding), accentedness (i.e., linguistic nativelikeness), and fluency (i.e., speech rate). The findings showed that the productive vocabulary scores significantly correlated with L2 fluency, but not with comprehensibility or accentedness. Such results might indicate that more proficient L2 learners, as indicated by their productive vocabulary scores, might be able to speak spontaneously without too many pauses and repetitions, and at a faster tempo. Finally, future research directions will be discussed with a focus on the relationships between vocabulary knowledge and speaking

Operationalising and measuring language dominance

The paper offers a new way to measure language ability in bilinguals, based on measures of lexical richness. The validity of proposed approach is tested in a variety of ways

Diamond (111) surface reconstruction and epitaxial graphene interface

The evolution of the diamond (111) surface as it undergoes reconstruction and subsequent graphene formation is investigated with angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, low energy electron diffraction, and complementary density functional theory calculations. The process is examined starting at the C(111)-(2x1) surface reconstruction that occurs following detachment of the surface adatoms at 920 {\deg}C, and continues through to the liberation of the reconstructed surface atoms into a free-standing monolayer of epitaxial graphene at temperatures above 1000 {\deg}C. Our results show that the C(111)-(2x1) surface is metallic as it has electronic states that intersect the Fermi-level. This is in strong agreement with a symmetrically {\pi}-bonded chain model and should contribute to resolving the controversies that exist in the literature surrounding the electronic nature of this surface. The graphene formed at higher temperatures exists above a newly formed C(111)-(2\times1) surface and appears to have little substrate interaction as the Dirac-point is observed at the Fermi-level. Finally, we demonstrate that it is possible to hydrogen terminate the underlying diamond surface by means of plasma processing without removing the graphene layer, forming a graphene-semiconductor interface. This could have particular relevance for doping the graphene formed on the diamond (111)surface via tuneable substrate interactions as a result of changing the terminating species at the diamond-graphene interface by plasma processing.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Assessing L2 vocabulary depth with word associates format tests: issues, findings, and suggestions

Word Associates Format (WAF) tests are often used to measure second language learners’ vocabulary depth with a focus on their network knowledge. Yet, there were often many variations in the specific forms of the tests and the ways they were used, which tended to have an impact on learners’ response behaviors and, more importantly, the psychometric properties of the tests. This paper reviews the general practices, key issues, and research findings that pertain to WAF tests in four major areas, including the design features of WAF tests, conditions for test administration, scoring methods, and test-taker characteristics. In each area, a set of variables is identified and described with relevant research findings also presented and discussed. Around eight topics, the General Discussion section provides some suggestions and directions for the development of WAF tests and the use of them as research tools in the future. This paper is hoped to help researchers become better aware that the results generated by a WAF test may vary depending on what specific design the test has, how it is administered and scored, and who the learners are, and consequently, make better decisions in their research that involves a WAF test

Individualized decision aid for diverse women with lupus nephritis (IDEA-WON): A randomized controlled trial.

BackgroundTreatment decision-making regarding immunosuppressive therapy is challenging for individuals with lupus. We assessed the effectiveness of a decision aid for immunosuppressive therapy in lupus nephritis.Methods and findingsIn a United States multicenter, open-label, randomized controlled trial (RCT), adult women with lupus nephritis, mostly from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds with low socioeconomic status (SES), seen in in- or outpatient settings, were randomized to an individualized, culturally tailored, computerized decision aid versus American College of Rheumatology (ACR) lupus pamphlet (1:1 ratio), using computer-generated randomization. We hypothesized that the co-primary outcomes of decisional conflict and informed choice regarding immunosuppressive medications would improve more in the decision aid group. Of 301 randomized women, 298 were analyzed; 47% were African-American, 26% Hispanic, and 15% white. Mean age (standard deviation [SD]) was 37 (12) years, 57% had annual income of <$40,000, and 36% had a high school education or less. Compared with the provision of the ACR lupus pamphlet (n = 147), participants randomized to the decision aid (n = 151) had (1) a clinically meaningful and statistically significant reduction in decisional conflict, 21.8 (standard error [SE], 2.5) versus 12.7 (SE, 2.0; p = 0.005) and (2) no difference in informed choice in the main analysis, 41% versus 31% (p = 0.08), but clinically meaningful and statistically significant difference in sensitivity analysis (net values for immunosuppressives positive [in favor] versus negative [against]), 50% versus 35% (p = 0.006). Unresolved decisional conflict was lower in the decision aid versus pamphlet groups, 22% versus 44% (p < 0.001). Significantly more patients in the decision aid versus pamphlet group rated information to be excellent for understanding lupus nephritis (49% versus 33%), risk factors (43% versus 27%), medication options (50% versus 33%; p ≤ 0.003 for all); and the ease of use of materials was higher in the decision aid versus pamphlet groups (51% versus 38%; p = 0.006). Key study limitations were the exclusion of men, short follow-up, and the lack of clinical outcomes, including medication adherence.ConclusionsAn individualized decision aid was more effective than usual care in reducing decisional conflict for choice of immunosuppressive medications in women with lupus nephritis.Trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov, NCT02319525

How many words do you need to speak Arabic? An Arabic vocabulary size test

This study describes a vocabulary size test in Arabic used with 339 nativespeaking learners at school and university in Saudi Arabia. Native speakervocabulary size scores should provide targets for attainment for learners ofArabic, should inform the writers of course books and teaching materials,and the test itself should allow learners to monitor their progress towardsthe goal of fluency. Educated native speakers of Arabic possess arecognition vocabulary about 25,000 words, a total which is largecompared with equivalent test scores of native speakers of English. Theresults also suggest that acquisition increases in speed with age and thisis tentatively explained by the highly regular system of morphologicalderivation which Arabic uses and which, it is thought, is acquired inadolescence. This again appears different from English where the rate ofacquisition appears to decline with age. While the test appears reliableand valid, there are issues surrounding the definition of a word in Arabicand further research into how words are stored, retrieved and processedin Arabic is needed to inform the construction of further tests whichmight, it is thought, profitably use a more encompassing definition ofthe lemma as the basis for testing