645 research outputs found
Taboo, the Game: Patent Office Edition—The New Preissuance Submissions Under the America Invents Act
Thorough patent examination ensures that issued patents confer constitutionally granted incentives to innovate but do not create inappropriately broad monopolies. Examiners at the United States Patent and Trademark Office are alone tasked with striking this proper balance, in part by searching the universe of existing published knowledge to determine the originality of the applied-for invention.
In 2011, Congress enacted the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, which included a provision allowing the public to present examiners with relevant publications that the examiners’ own searches might not otherwise uncover. However, this “preissuance submissions” provision and its related administrative rule are tempered by 35 U.S.C. § 122(c) (2006), which prohibits any third-party, pre-grant “protest or other form of [preissuance] opposition” to an application. Thus, although a party may describe to an examiner how its submission is relevant to an application, that party is prohibited from arguing how the submission renders that application unpatentable.
This Note argues that Congress should amend § 122(c) to permit preissuance third-party argumentation for two reasons. First, the current scheme arguably violates that law already. Second, a rule allowing submitter argumentation would better incentivize participation by competitive parties who fear that examiners might not recognize their submitted publications\u27 full invalidating potential
Out-of-Band Radiation Measure for MIMO Arrays with Beamformed Transmission
The spatial characteristics of the out-of-band radiation that a multiuser
MIMO system emits in the environment, due to its power amplifiers (modeled by a
polynomial model) are nonlinear, is studied by deriving an analytical
expression for the continuous-time cross-correlation of the transmit signals.
At a random spatial point, the same power is received at any frequency on
average with a MIMO base station as with a SISO base station when the two
radiate the same amount of power. For a specific channel realization however,
the received power depends on the channel. We show that the power received
out-of-band only deviates little from the average in a MIMO system with
multiple users and that the deviation can be significant with only one user.
Using an ergodicity argument, we conclude that out-of-band radiation is less of
a problem in massive MIMO, where total radiated power is lower compared to SISO
systems and that requirements on spectral regrowth can be relaxed in MIMO
systems without causing more total out-of-band radiation
Impact of Spatial Filtering on Distortion from Low-Noise Amplifiers in Massive MIMO Base Stations
In massive MIMO base stations, power consumption and cost of the low-noise
amplifiers (LNAs) can be substantial because of the many antennas. We
investigate the feasibility of inexpensive, power efficient LNAs, which
inherently are less linear. A polynomial model is used to characterize the
nonlinear LNAs and to derive the second-order statistics and spatial
correlation of the distortion. We show that, with spatial matched filtering
(maximum-ratio combining) at the receiver, some distortion terms combine
coherently, and that the SINR of the symbol estimates therefore is limited by
the linearity of the LNAs. Furthermore, it is studied how the power from a
blocker in the adjacent frequency band leaks into the main band and creates
distortion. The distortion term that scales cubically with the power received
from the blocker has a spatial correlation that can be filtered out by spatial
processing and only the coherent term that scales quadratically with the power
remains. When the blocker is in free-space line-of-sight and the LNAs are
identical, this quadratic term has the same spatial direction as the desired
signal, and hence cannot be removed by linear receiver processing
Spatial Characteristics of Distortion Radiated from Antenna Arrays with Transceiver Nonlinearities
The distortion from massive MIMO (multiple-input--multiple-output) base
stations with nonlinear amplifiers is studied and its radiation pattern is
derived. The distortion is analyzed both in-band and out-of-band. By using an
orthogonal Hermite representation of the amplified signal, the spatial
cross-correlation matrix of the nonlinear distortion is obtained. It shows
that, if the input signal to the amplifiers has a dominant beam, the distortion
is beamformed in the same way as that beam. When there are multiple beams
without any one being dominant, it is shown that the distortion is practically
isotropic. The derived theory is useful to predict how the nonlinear distortion
will behave, to analyze the out-of-band radiation, to do reciprocity
calibration, and to schedule users in the frequency plane to minimize the
effect of in-band distortion
Comparison within gender and between female and male leaders in female-dominated, male-dominated and mixed-gender work environments
The aim of the study was to compare the self-rated leadership behaviors of men and women in female-dominated, male-dominated and mixed-gender work environments and make within-gender comparisons across these three contexts. Data was collected using the Developmental Leadership Questionnaire from a sample of Swedish leadership course participants (N = 1897). Female leaders rated themselves more favorably than male leaders in female- dominated and mixed-gender work environments. Only small gender differences were found in male-dominated settings. Women in female dominated and gender-mixed work environments reported more favorable self-ratings than women in male dominated contexts. Among male leaders, fewer differences were observed between different work environments. The results are discussed in terms of organizational culture, individual selection preferences and a rapidly growing proportion of women leaders in the Swedish labor market.publishedVersio
Age and leadership: comparisons of age groups in different kinds of work environment
Purpose – The purpose of this study is twofold. First, to compare the self-rated leadership behaviors, leadership-related competencies and results of the leadership of younger, mid-aged and older leaders; and second to compare these aspects among younger leaders in different kinds of the work environment and between men and women. Design/methodology/approach – Data was collected using the developmental leadership questionnaire from a sample of Swedish leadership course participants (N = 7,743). Findings – The results showed that the younger group of leaders (29 years old or younger n = 539), rated themselves more negatively than the mid-aged (30–50 years, n = 5,208) and older (51 years or older, n = 1,996) leaders. Analysis of the group of younger leaders showed that those working in the private sector scored most favorably. The gender comparison revealed that young male leaders scored higher on negative conventional (transactional) and destructive leadership behaviors. A logistic regression analysis of the younger group showed that social competence, developmental leadership and destructive leadership (negative) influenced self-rated results of leadership. Research limitations/implications – The study is based on leaders’ self-ratings only. Practical implications – The results can be used in leadership development contexts and in individualized coaching or mentoring programs. Originality/value – The results have new implications for leadership theory related to self-confidence, stereotypes, selection and organizational culture. Keywords Leadership, Work environment, Age, Theory-based measurement, Developmental Leadership Questionnaire (DLQ)publishedVersio
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