Much Ado about Transformativeness: The Seventh Circuit and Market-Centered Fair Use

In Kienitz v. Sconnie Nation LLC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ultimately rejected the concept of transformative use having a central role within the doctrine of fair use. In doing so, the Seventh Circuit broke with judicial precedent, namely the Supreme Court’s holding in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., where the Court unanimously held that the inquiry for the first factor of fair use is whether, and to what extent, the work is transformative. The Seventh Circuit’s 2014 decision raises questions about the scope of the holding in Campbell and about whether this holding extends to cases outside of the realm of parody. This Article will examine the scope of Campbell and whether there can still be market-centered fair use post-Campbell. This Article will then consider the implications of a market-centered fair use analysis. Finally, this Article will conclude that courts should continue to utilize the transformative use inquiry for the purposes of fair use, that Congress need not intervene in fair use, and that there cannot be market-centered fair use post-Campbell

A Decision-Theoretic Approach to Resource Allocation in Wireless Multimedia Networks

The allocation of scarce spectral resources to support as many user applications as possible while maintaining reasonable quality of service is a fundamental problem in wireless communication. We argue that the problem is best formulated in terms of decision theory. We propose a scheme that takes decision-theoretic concerns (like preferences) into account and discuss the difficulties and subtleties involved in applying standard techniques from the theory of Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) in constructing an algorithm that is decision-theoretically optimal. As an example of the proposed framework, we construct such an algorithm under some simplifying assumptions. Additionally, we present analysis and simulation results that show that our algorithm meets its design goals. Finally, we investigate how far from optimal one well-known heuristic is. The main contribution of our results is in providing insight and guidance for the design of near-optimal admission-control policies.Comment: To appear, Dial M for Mobility, 200

Nanotailoring Stereolithography Resins for Unique Applications using Carbon Nanotubes

Nanostructured materials and exploiting their properties in stereolithography (SL) may open new markets for unique rapidly manufactured functional devices. Controlled amounts of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were successfully dispersed in SL epoxy-based resins and complex three-dimensional (3D) parts were successfully fabricated by means of a multi-material SL setup. The effect of the nanosized filler was evaluated using mechanical testing. Small dispersions of MWCNTs resulted in significant effects on the physical properties of the polymerized resin. A MWCNT concentration of .05 wt% (w/v) in DSM Somos® WaterShed™ 11120 resin increased the ultimate tensile stress and fracture stress an average of 17% and 37%, respectively. Electron microscopy was used to examine the morphology of the nanocomposite and results showed affinity between the MWCNTs and SL resin and identified buckled nanotubes that illustrated strong interfacial bonding. These improved physical properties may provide opportunities for using nanocomposite SL resins in end-use applications. Varying types and concentrations of nanomaterials can be used to tailor existing SL resins for particular applications.Mechanical Engineerin

Gravitational conundrum? Dynamical mass segregation versus disruption of binary stars in dense stellar systems

Upon their formation, dynamically cool (collapsing) star clusters will, within only a few million years, achieve stellar mass segregation for stars down to a few solar masses, simply because of gravitational two-body encounters. Since binary systems are, on average, more massive than single stars, one would expect them to also rapidly mass segregate dynamically. Contrary to these expectations and based on high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope observations, we show that the compact, 15-30 Myr-old Large Magellanic Cloud cluster NGC 1818 exhibits tantalizing hints at the >= 2 sigma level of significance (> 3 sigma if we assume a power-law secondary-to-primary mass-ratio distribution) of an increasing fraction of F-star binary systems (with combined masses of 1.3-1.6 Msun) with increasing distance from the cluster center, specifically between the inner 10 to 20" (approximately equivalent to the cluster's core and half-mass radii) and the outer 60 to 80". If confirmed, this will offer support of the theoretically predicted but thus far unobserved dynamical disruption processes of the significant population of 'soft' binary systems---with relatively low binding energies compared to the kinetic energy of their stellar members---in star clusters, which we have access to here by virtue of the cluster's unique combination of youth and high stellar density.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal; 19 pages in AASTeX format; 3 figure

Pollution, health, and the moderating role of physical activity opportunities

Cunningham GB, Wicker P, McCullough BP. Pollution, health, and the moderating role of physical activity opportunities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020;17(17): 6272.Air and water pollution have detrimental effects on health, while physical activity opportunities have a positive relationship. The purpose of this study was to explore whether physical activity opportunities moderate the relationships among air and water pollution, and measures of health. Aggregate data were collected at the county level in the United States (n = 3104). Variables included the mean daily density of fine particle matter (air pollution), reported cases of health-related drinking water violations (water pollution), subjective ratings of poor or fair health (overall health), the number of physically and mentally unhealthy (physical and mental health, respectively), and the percentage of people living in close proximity to a park or recreation facility (access to physical activity). Air and water pollution have a significant positive effect on all measures of residents' poor health, while physical activity opportunities only have a negative effect on overall health and physical health. Access to physical activity only moderates the relationship between air pollution and all health outcomes. Since physical activity behavior can be more rapidly changed than some causes of pollution, providing the resident population with better access to physical activity can represent an effective tool in environmental health policy

Development of a Multi-material Stereolithography System

Researchers continue to explore possibilities for expanding additive manufacturing (AM) technologies into direct product manufacturing. One limitation is in the materials available for use in AM that can meet the needs of end-use applications. Stereolithography (SL) is an AM technology well known for its precision and high quality surface finish capabilities. SL builds parts by selectively crosslinking or solidifying photo-curable liquid resins, and the resin industry has been continuously developing new resins with improved performance characteristics. This paper introduces a unique SL machine that can fabricate parts out of multiple SL materials. The technology is based on using multiple vats positioned on a rotating vat carousel that contain different photo-curable materials. To change the material during the process, the build platform is raised out of the current vat, a new vat with a different material is rotated under the platform, and the platform is submerged into the new vat so that the new material can be used. This paper introduces a new vat exchange mechanism, cleaning process, recoating process, resin leveling mechanism and process planning technologies for the implementation of multiple material SL. An overview of the system framework is provided and the system integration and control software is described. In addition, several multiple material test parts are designed, fabricated, and described

On the Asymptotic Behavior of Selfish Transmitters Sharing a Common Channel

This paper analyzes the asymptotic behavior of a multiple-access network comprising a large number of selfish transmitters competing for access to a common wireless communication channel, and having different utility functions for determining their strategies. A necessary and sufficient condition is given for the total number of packet arrivals from selfish transmitters to converge in distribution. The asymptotic packet arrival distribution at Nash equilibrium is shown to be a mixture of a Poisson distribution and finitely many Bernoulli distributions.Comment: Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, Toronto, ON, Canada, July 6 - 11, 200