DABUS, An Artificial Intelligence Machine, Invented Something New and Useful, but the USPTO is not Buying It

U.S. patent laws are designed to promote science and the useful arts. They grant temporary monopoly rights to inventors in order to incentivize inventive activity. In the United States, patent rights revolve around the inventor. However, what happens when an Artificial Intelligence (AI) machine invents? Who deserves monopoly rights to the invention? Who will be incentivized by such monopolies? Do U.S. laws protect companies’ investments in AI? In 2019, for the first time in history, an AI machine called DABUS was listed as an inventor on two U.S. patent applications. The United States Patent and Trademark Office denied the applications, saying that inventors must be human. A federal district court affirmed the denial, as well as the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, saying that the Patent Act “unambiguously” requires an inventor to be a natural person. Under the current statutory scheme, the two main problems AI-generated inventions present are inventorship and ownership. AI is already part of modern inventive processes, such as the development of vaccines or safety equipment. AI’s prominence will only increase because AI is able to do things humans simply cannot and thus will dramatically improve our lives. Therefore, the United States needs to ensure companies are properly incentivized to develop and use AI. Currently, U.S. patent law comes up short. If AI-generated inventions are unpatentable, what will incentivize companies to invest significant resources into inventive AI? Will countries such as South Africa, which allowed the DABUS inventions to be patented, put the United States at an inventive and technological disadvantage? To solve the problems of inventorship and ownership, I propose the creation of a sui generis category of invention whereby AI-generated inventions without a human inventor can receive patent protection and the company that employs the AI becomes the “inventor” and owner under a work-made-for-hire-type model

Evolution of oil droplets in a chemorobotic platform

Evolution, once the preserve of biology, has been widely emulated in software, while physically embodied systems that can evolve have been limited to electronic and robotic devices and have never been artificially implemented in populations of physically interacting chemical entities. Herein we present a liquid-handling robot built with the aim of investigating the properties of oil droplets as a function of composition via an automated evolutionary process. The robot makes the droplets by mixing four different compounds in different ratios and placing them in a Petri dish after which they are recorded using a camera and the behaviour of the droplets analysed using image recognition software to give a fitness value. In separate experiments, the fitness function discriminates based on movement, division and vibration over 21 cycles, giving successive fitness increases. Analysis and theoretical modelling of the data yields fitness landscapes analogous to the genotype–phenotype correlations found in biological evolution. , Trevor Hinkley, James Ward Taylor Kliment Yane

Managing patient factors in the assessment of swallowing via telerehabilitation

Undoubtedly, the identification of patient suitability for a telerehabilitation assessment should be carried out on a case-by-case basis. However, at present there is minimal discussion of how telerehabilitation systems can accommodate and adapt to various patient factors, which may pose challenges to successful service delivery. The current study examines a subgroup of 10 patients who underwent an online assessment of their swallowing difficulties. Although all assessments were completed successfully; there were certain patient factors, which complicated the delivery of the online assessment session. The paper presents a discussion of the main patient factors observed in this cohort including the presence of speech and/or voice disorders, hearing impairment, dyskinesia, and behavioural and/or emotional issues and examines how the assessment session, the telerehabilitation system, and the staff involved were manipulated to accommodate these patient factors. In order for telerehabilitation systems to be more widely incorporated into routine clinical care, systems need to have the flexibility and design capabilities to adjust and accommodate for patients with varying levels of function and physical and psychological comorbidities

Phenotypic Characterization of Chicken Bursal Stromal Elements

Many, if not all, of the different phases of intrabursal B-cell maturation are controlled by the stromal components. We have used an extensive panel of mAb to provide a detailed phenotypic profile of these cells. Antigenic specificities were defined for the entire surface epithelium, interfollicular surface epithelium, follicle-associated epithelium, basement membrane, basement membrane-associated epithelium. Several mAb were specific for the medulla, including those reactive with the stellate network of epithelial cells, isolated macrophages, and granular, apparently secreted antigens. One of these, MUI-92, appears to be bursa-specific. Two mAb reacted strongly with stellate cortical macrophages, one of which weakly stained similar cells in the medulla. MHC-class II antigens were expressed on endothelium of the corticomedullary junction, macrophagelike cells in the cortex, and medulla and B lymphocytes predominantly in the cortex. Collectively, these mAb have demonstrated the antigenically distinct nature of discrete regions in the bursa, but also the continuity of the surface epithelium with the corticomedullary junction and medulla. They represent excellent reagents for defining the stromal cell contribution to B-cell development

Chronic nitrite treatment activates adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase-endothelial nitric oxide synthase pathway in human aortic endothelial cells

Endothelial dysfunction, with impaired bioavailability and/or bioactivity of the vasoprotective molecule, nitric oxide, appears to be a vital step in the initiation of atherosclerosis. Several studies have shown that dietary nitrate/nitrite can have significant benefits on human cardiovascular homeostasis. Although serum nitrite concentrations can reach micromolar levels, the physiological significance of nitrate/nitrite in normal tissues has not been fully elucidated. We investigated in vitro the chronic effects of nitrate/nitrite on endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) to determine the potential vasoprotective effects of nitrate/nitrite and the underlying molecular mechanisms. Our results demonstrate the expression of phosphorylated eNOS at Ser1177 and phosphorylated adenosine monophosphate activated protein kinase (AMPK) at Thr172 in human aortic endothelial cells were increased after nitrite treatment. We suggest that nitrite stimulation may enhance eNOS activation, which is due, in part, to AMPK activation. The AMPK–eNOS activation by nitrite may be a possible molecular mechanism underlying the vascular protective effects of dietary nitrate

Effect of Temperature and Catholyte Concentration on the Performance of a Chemically Regenerative Fuel Cell POM-based catholytes for platinum-free polymer electrolyte fuel cells

Chemically regenerative redox cathode (CRRC) polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) are attracting more interest as a platinum-free PEFC technology. These fuel cells utilise a liquid catalyst or catholyte, to perform the indirect reduction of oxygen, eliminating the major degradation mechanisms that plague PEFC durability. A key component of a CRRC PEFC system is the catholyte. This article reports a thorough study of the effect of catholyte concentration and temperature on CRRC PEFC system performance for H7PV4Mo8O40 and Na4H3PV4Mo8O40, two promising polyoxometalate (POM)-based catholytes. The results suggest 80ºC and a catholyte concentration of 0.3 M provide the optimum performance for both H7PV4Mo8O40 and Na4H3PV4Mo8O40 (for ambient pressure operation)

The redesign and re-evaluation of an internet-based telerehabilitation system for the assessment of dysarthria in adults

A previous study revealed that reliable assessment of dysarthria was feasible. However, that study also revealed a number of system limitations and suggested that technological enhancements and improvements in study design and clinical assessment protocols were needed before validity and reliability of assessment of dysarthria via telerehabilitation could be confirmed. In the current study, improvements in technology, study design, and clinical assessment protocols were implemented in order to re-examine the validity and reliability of assessing and diagnosing dysarthria via the telerehabilitation medium. The aim of this study was to explore the validity and reliability of assessing dysarthria using both formal standardized and informal assessments via a purpose-built telerehabilitation system. Twenty-four participants with an acquired dysarthria were assessed simultaneously via telerehabilitation and face-to-face (FTF) on a battery of assessments. A custom-built telerehabilitation system enabled real-time telerehabilitation assessment over a 128 Kbps Internet connection. Data analysis included an analysis of strength of agreement between the two methods using percentage agreement and weighted Κ statistics. Inter-rater and intrarater reliability were also examined for both the FTF and telerehabilitation-led assessments. Good strength of agreement was found between the FTF and telerehabilitation assessment methods. High intrarater and inter-rater reliability within both the FTF and telerehabilitation assessment methods supported these findings. Participants reported high overall satisfaction in the telerehabilitation environment. This study describes the improvements made to the telerehabilitation system reported previously and confirms that valid and reliable assessment of dysarthria using both standardized and informal assessments over the Internet is possible using this system

The Importance of Cell Compression Pressure for Flow Battery Performance

Compared to fuel cells, which possess similar cell architecture, flow batteries have poor performance. For example, conventional fuel cells can easily achieve current densities of 1.5 A cm-2 whereas the corresponding figure for the all vanadium flow battery (VFB) is an order of magnitude less, often less than 0.2 A cm 2 [1]. Consequently, relatively large flow battery cells are required for a given power, increasing the cost of the technology. There are a few noticeable exceptions to the relatively poor performance of flow batteries, including the work of Zawodzinski et al. who achieved current densities in excess of 0.8 A cm 2 with a VFB [2]. Most impressively, Weber and co-workers achieved current densities as high as 4 A cm 2 with a H2-Br2 flow battery [3]. In both cases, the researchers used fuel cell components and fuel cell assembly techniques to minimize the cell ohmic resistance, particularly the contact resistance between the cell parts (electrodes, bipolar plates and current collectors). Typically, fuel cells are assembled using compression pressures of above 8 bar to minimize contact resistance. In comparison, flow batteries use compression pressures less than 1 bar during cell assembly with carbon fibre felt electrodes; hence contact resistance values are relatively high. A number of studies have measured the effect of felt compression on battery performance [4-5], where the felt compression is increased from 0 to 30%, resulting in a decrease in cell resistance and a noticeable improvement in performance. This study builds on previous felt compression work by exploring a much wider range of electrode compression pressures in a VFB system