What kind of semantics and why to use it in patents: part 1 – Semantic search

The term semantics means to add meanings to text. The world "sematic" entered in patent information circles about ten years ago, as "semantic search", i.e. a new query paradigm, which starts searching from a prototype text. The interest about this topic, is increasing now, as demonstrated by new presentations on recent patent events, as CEPIUG 2018 and EPOPIC 2018. This topic still attracts some concerns, mostly due to the fact that semantic searches are perceived as black box solutions. This contribution will try to "open the box" of semantic searches, summarizing different features of semantic searches, which can be used for a first assessment of specific solutions. Moreover, from these features we can infer that semantic searches available today are very different together, and can be differentiated into two categories or generations. Finally we suggest that the preferred use today for semantic searches is to increase the recall after a "traditional" search

Hybrid Neural Networks for Frequency Estimation of Unevenly Sampled Data

In this paper we present a hybrid system composed by a neural network based estimator system and genetic algorithms. It uses an unsupervised Hebbian nonlinear neural algorithm to extract the principal components which, in turn, are used by the MUSIC frequency estimator algorithm to extract the frequencies. We generalize this method to avoid an interpolation preprocessing step and to improve the performance by using a new stop criterion to avoid overfitting. Furthermore, genetic algorithms are used to optimize the neural net weight initialization. The experimental results are obtained comparing our methodology with the others known in literature on a Cepheid star light curve.Comment: 5 pages, to appear in the proceedings of IJCNN 99, IEEE Press, 199

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy associated with severe left ventricular involvement in a cat.

An 8-year-old, 4 kg, intact female, domestic shorthaired cat was referred for tachypnea and pleural effusion. A 24-h Holter recording showed numerous polymorphic ventricular premature complexes with left and right bundle branch block morphology. Echocardiographic examination revealed right atrial and ventricular dilation. The right ventricular free wall was thin and aneurysmal. The cat died 10 days after initiation of antiarrhythmic therapy. Gross and histopathological findings were consistent with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) associated with severe left ventricular involvement

How Close Is “Too Close”

Lana Ciaramella writes an article on trade dress infringement. Her article discusses the standards of trade dress infringement, how they are applicable to private label products and how the courts have modified their view of trade dress infringement over time. She focuses on the landmark decision in McNeil Nutritionals, LLC v. Heartland Sweetners, which set a new precedent for treatment of trade dress infringement by private label manufacturers of brand name products

The Effects of Stress on Physiology and Meat Quality in Cultured Channel Catfish

Stress during fish culture can impact growth, physiology and fillet quality. Maintenance of high quality seafood is important to ensure the production of a highly marketable product. The present study assessed how sequential stressors affect the physical, physiological, sensory and quality characteristics of channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) fillets. Temperature (25°C or 33°C) and dissolved oxygen (DO, ~2 mg/L or \u3e5 mg/L) were maintained for four weeks, followed by socking and transport stress for a total of 12 treatments. After each stage of stress (environment, socking and transport), physical (length, weight and feed consumption), physiological (hematocrit, plasma cortisol, pH, glucose, lactate, total protein, osmolality and ionic composition) and fillet quality (color, texture, sensory and pathogen load) attributes of the fish and fillets were evaluated. Fillet yield decreased with increasing severity of environmental stress. Overall, increasing stress resulted in decreased feed consumption, growth and fillet yields. A cumulative stress response was identified with regard to circulating cortisol and glucose, which increased with each sequential stress event. Under low oxygen conditions there was a suppression of the stress response. Handling imposed a more pronounced physiological response than environmental conditions. The sequential stressors resulted in a less intensely colored fillet that was less red, which suggests the quality changes imposed are beneficial to the marketability of the fillets. However, increased redness in fish reared under high temperatures and oxygen levels suggest that an increased prevalence of red fillets can be expected. Sensory analysis revealed that fillet flavor was acceptable in all treatments with the severe stress treatment preferred due to lower intensity of less favorable flavor attributes. The changes in flavor were presumably due to fasting of the stressed fish and a subsequent purging of fat stores. As fish progressed through the harvest event, cook loss decreased, tenderness increased and pH increased, indicating that stress induced positive textural changes. Proteomic analysis revealed mainly down-regulation of structural and metabolic proteins, which indicates higher proteolytic activity and an adjustment in energy metabolism in response to stress. The overall effects of chronic environmental conditions and handling highlight the importance of managing for stress in cultured channel catfish

"WDM-DPSK Detection by means of Frequency-Periodic Gaussian Filtering"

A single frequency-periodic narrow filter converts DPSK to intensity modulation in a high number of WDM channels. It also strongly enhances their tolerance to chromatic dispersion and is exploited in a 16x10 Gbit/s transmission over 240 km G.652 fibre with no chromatic dispersion compensation