Tagmarks

From Kentucky Fried Chicken’s #HowDoYouKFC campaign to viral fundraiser #IceBucketChallenge to Instagram phenomenon #TBT, hashtags as trademarks — I call them “tagmarks” — are having a moment. Given the resources that brands invest in marketing via social media, and specifically in choosing and using hashtags, it’s not surprising that some players have begun to seek federal trademark registration for those hashtags. By the end of 2015, companies had successfully registered two hundred tagmarks and sought protection for over a thousand others; the US Trademark Office granted more tagmark registrations in that year than it did in every previous year combined. But can a hashtag really be a trademark? This Article argues that because consumers are primed to perceive a hashtag primarily as a tool for search, organization, or self-expression on social media, any trademark meaning that might attach to a hashtag is necessarily a secondary meaning. As such, even tagmarks comprising suggestive or arbitrary terms will not inherently serve as source indicators and should only be granted protection upon a showing of secondary meaning

New-School Trademark Dilution: Famous among the Juvenile Consuming Public

The recently enacted Trademark Dilution Revision Act of 2006 recalibrated the degree of fame necessary to garner protection: the TDRA applies only to a mark widely recognized by the general consuming public of the United States as a designation of source of the goods or services of the mark’s owner. By privileging those major players who succeed in turning their brands into household names, the TDRA strengthens incentives for mark-owners to ensure their logos and brand names are well-recognized not only among adult consumers, but also among children. This Article examines a set of marketing behaviors aimed at children that the TDRA\u27s revised fame standard both reflects and rewards. Deeming fewer marks famous may serve the immediate purpose of creating a higher bar for plaintiffs to successfully bring dilution claims, but that bar should be set at age twenty-one to avoid rewarding firms for making loyal consumers out of teenagers, tweens, kids and even infants

Everything New Is Old Again: Brain Fingerprinting and Evidentiary Analogy

Brain Fingerprinting uses electroencephalography to ascertain the presence or absence of information in a subject\u27s brain based on his reaction to particular stimuli. As a new forensic tool, Brain Fingerprinting technology stands poised to exert a tremendous impact on the presentation and outcome of selected legal cases in the near future. It also provides a fertile case study to examine the role of analogical reasoning in the process by which lawyers, experts, judges, and the media influence how factjinders perceive and evaluate unfamiliar types of proof When juridical metaphor disguises, distorts, or destroys ideas, it ceases to serve as an aid to understanding and functions instead as an obstacle to knowledge. This Note explores the ways in which evidentiary analogy may insidiously shape how courts treat novel forms of scientific evidence

Biophysical Features of Bacillithiol, the Glutathione Surrogate of Bacillus subtilis and other Firmicutes

Bacillithiol (BSH) is the major low-molecular-weight (LMW) thiol in many low-G+C Gram-positive bacteria (Firmicutes). Evidence now emerging suggests that BSH functions as an important LMW thiol in redox regulation and xenobiotic detoxification, analogous to what is already known for glutathione and mycothiol in other microorganisms. The biophysical properties and cellular concentrations of such LMW thiols are important determinants of their biochemical efficiency both as biochemical nucleophiles and as redox buffers. Here, BSH has been characterised and compared with other LMW thiols in terms of its thiol pKa, redox potential and thiol–disulfide exchange reactivity. Both the thiol pKa and the standard thiol redox potential of BSH are shown to be significantly lower than those of glutathione whereas the reactivities of the two compounds in thiol–disulfide reactions are comparable. The cellular concentration of BSH in Bacillus subtilis varied over different growth phases and reached up to 5 mM, which is significantly greater than previously observed from single measurements taken during mid-exponential growth. These results demonstrate that the biophysical characteristics of BSH are distinctively different from those of GSH and that its cellular concentrations can reach levels much higher than previously reported

Pilot study on the reliability of the coach\u27s eye: Identifying talent throughout a 4-day cadet judo campp

A typical assumption found in talent identification literature is that different coaches, given the same athletes and circumstances, will identify the same subset of athletes as “talented”. However, while coaches play a major role during talent identification in practical sport settings, there is limited empirical research exploring the processes which underpin this. The purpose of this study was to explore the reliability of “the coach\u27s eye” during the assessment of talent in a group of athletes. Specifically, this project compared inter-coach agreement between nine judo coaches (ages 35.8 ± 10.6 years) with varying levels of experience (12.9 ± 8.9 years) in the evaluation of 24 talented cadet judo athletes (13–15 years) at seven timepoints throughout a 4-day development training camp. Without discussion of their scores with other coaches, coaches provided a single score representing each athlete\u27s “potential for future performance” on an 11-point Likert scale at each timepoint. Scores from each coach were converted into rankings from 1 to 24 to create a normalized scale to facilitate comparison of athletes. Based on their rankings at each timepoint, athletes were placed into one of three evenly distributed groups (high, medium, and low rank). Inter-coach agreement at each timepoint was determined by the number of coaches who ranked each athlete in the same group, categorized at three levels: 50, 75 or 100% agreement. Overall results showed that at completion of the camp, coaches reached 100% agreement on only two athletes, both of whom were in the high rank group. When inter-coach agreement was set at 50%, 15 athletes (62.5%) were placed into like groups. The first timepoint at which coaches were able to differentiate between the majority of athletes was Timepoint 3 (end of day 2). The findings suggest that, in isolation, coaches do not agree on the talent or potential of athletes. This indicates that the “coach\u27s eye” is subjective and variable, and, given the same context, there is poor inter-coach agreement in the identification of talented athletes. In turn, these findings may have significant implications for both future talent identification research and athlete selection processes by sport organizations

Body odor quality predicts behavioral attractiveness in humans

Growing effort is being made to understand how different attractive physical traits co-vary within individuals, partly because this might indicate an underlying index of genetic quality. In humans, attention has focused on potential markers of quality such as facial attractiveness, axillary odor quality, the second-to-fourth digit (2D:4D) ratio and body mass index (BMI). Here we extend this approach to include visually-assessed kinesic cues (nonverbal behavior linked to movement) which are statistically independent of structural physical traits. The utility of such kinesic cues in mate assessment is controversial, particularly during everyday conversational contexts, as they could be unreliable and susceptible to deception. However, we show here that the attractiveness of nonverbal behavior, in 20 male participants, is predicted by perceived quality of their axillary body odor. This finding indicates covariation between two desirable traits in different sensory modalities. Depending on two different rating contexts (either a simple attractiveness rating or a rating for long-term partners by 10 female raters not using hormonal contraception), we also found significant relationships between perceived attractiveness of nonverbal behavior and BMI, and between axillary odor ratings and 2D:4D ratio. Axillary odor pleasantness was the single attribute that consistently predicted attractiveness of nonverbal behavior. Our results demonstrate that nonverbal kinesic cues could reliably reveal mate quality, at least in males, and could corroborate and contribute to mate assessment based on other physical traits

Effectively Measuring Exercise-Related Variations in T1ρ and T2 Relaxation Times of Healthy Articular Cartilage.

BACKGROUND: Determining the compositional response of articular cartilage to dynamic joint-loading using MRI may be a more sensitive assessment of cartilage status than conventional static imaging. However, distinguishing the effects of joint-loading vs. inherent measurement variability remains difficult, as the repeatability of these quantitative methods is often not assessed or reported. PURPOSE: To assess exercise-induced changes in femoral, tibial, and patellar articular cartilage composition and compare these against measurement repeatability. STUDY TYPE: Prospective observational study. POPULATION: Phantom and 19 healthy participants. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: 3T; 3D fat-saturated spoiled gradient recalled-echo; T1ρ - and T2 -prepared pseudosteady-state 3D fast spin echo. ASSESSMENT: The intrasessional repeatability of T1ρ and T2 relaxation mapping, with and without knee repositioning between two successive measurements, was determined in 10 knees. T1ρ and T2 relaxation mapping of nine knees was performed before and at multiple timepoints after a 5-minute repeated, joint-loading stepping activity. 3D surface models were created from patellar, femoral, and tibial articular cartilage. STATISTICAL TESTS: Repeatability was assessed using root-mean-squared-CV (RMS-CV). Using Bland-Altman analysis, thresholds defined as the smallest detectable difference (SDD) were determined from the repeatability data with knee repositioning. RESULTS: Without knee repositioning, both surface-averaged T1ρ and T2 were very repeatable on all cartilage surfaces, with RMS-CV SDD) average exercise-induced in T1ρ and T2 of femoral (-8.0% and -5.3%), lateral tibial (-6.9% and -5.9%), medial tibial (+5.8% and +2.9%), and patellar (-7.9% and +2.8%) cartilage were observed. DATA CONCLUSION: Joint-loading with a stepping activity resulted in T1ρ and T2 changes above background measurement error. EVIDENCE LEVEL: 2 TECHNICAL EFFICACY STAGE: 1 J. MAGN. RESON. IMAGING 2020;52:1753-1764.GlaxoSmithKline National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centr

ZnII(atsm) is protective in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis model mice via a copper delivery mechanism

AbstractMutations in the metalloprotein Cu,Zn-superoxide dismutase (SOD1) cause approximately 20% of familial cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neurodegenerative disease for which effective therapeutics do not yet exist. Transgenic rodent models based on over-expression of mutant SOD1 have been developed and these have provided opportunity to test new therapeutic strategies and to study the mechanisms of mutant SOD1 toxicity. Although the mechanisms of mutant SOD1 toxicity are yet to be fully elucidated, incorrect or incomplete metallation of SOD1 confers abnormal folding, aggregation and biochemical properties, and improving the metallation state of SOD1 provides a viable therapeutic option. The therapeutic effects of delivering copper (Cu) to mutant SOD1 have been demonstrated recently. The aim of the current study was to determine if delivery of zinc (Zn) to SOD1 was also therapeutic. To investigate this, SOD1G37R mice were treated with the metal complex diacetyl-bis(4-methylthiosemicarbazonato)zincII [ZnII(atsm)]. Treatment resulted in an improvement in locomotor function and survival of the mice. However, biochemical analysis of spinal cord tissue collected from the mice revealed that the treatment did not increase overall Zn levels in the spinal cord nor the Zn content of SOD1. In contrast, overall levels of Cu in the spinal cord were elevated in the ZnII(atsm)-treated SOD1G37R mice and the Cu content of SOD1 was also elevated. Further experiments demonstrated transmetallation of ZnII(atsm) in the presence of Cu to form the Cu-analogue CuII(atsm), indicating that the observed therapeutic effects for ZnII(atsm) in SOD1G37R mice may in fact be due to in vivo transmetallation and subsequent delivery of Cu

Maximum Spherical Mean Value (mSMV) Filtering for Whole Brain Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping

To develop a tissue field filtering algorithm, called maximum Spherical Mean Value (mSMV), for reducing shadow artifacts in quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) of the brain without requiring brain tissue erosion.Residual background field is a major source of shadow artifacts in QSM. The mSMV algorithm filters large field values near the border, where the maximum value of the harmonic background field is located. The effectiveness of mSMV for artifact removal was evaluated by comparing with existing QSM algorithms in numerical brain simulation as well as using in vivo human data acquired from 11 healthy volunteers and 93 patients. Numerical simulation showed that mSMV reduces shadow artifacts and improves QSM accuracy. Better shadow reduction, as demonstrated by lower QSM variation in the gray matter and higher QSM image quality score, was also observed in healthy subjects and in patients with hemorrhages, stroke and multiple sclerosis. The mSMV algorithm allows QSM maps that are substantially equivalent to those obtained using SMV-filtered dipole inversion without eroding the volume of interest.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure