Who\u27s the Author? A Bright-Line Rule for Specially Commissioned Works Made for Hire

This comment argues that the best way to clarify the answer to the question Who\u27s the author? (and thus to clarify whether the creator has a termination right) is to resolve the circuit split in favor of a bright-line rule requiring execution of the written agreement prior to the creation of the work. Part I introduces the legal framework under which the issue must be analyzed. Part II reviews the holdings on each side of the circuit split. Part III presents the arguments that both proper statutory construction of U.S. copyright law and the legislative history of the termination right, which is closely related to the work made for hire provision, support the contention that the statute should be read to impose the bright-line rule. Part IV concludes

Effects of Force Level and Hand Dominance on Bilateral Transfer of a Fine Motor Skill

Our research is about bilateral transfer, a concept in motor learning where skills learned by one limb are "transferred", allowing the opposite limb to benefit from what was learned by the first limb. Previous research into bilateral transfer has raised questions about whether specific aspects of motor coordination are or are not transferred. We wanted to see whether learning to control pinch force by the thumb and index finger is transferable, and if it is, whether the learning transfers equally from either hand. We also want to look into the effects of different force levels on the degree of transfer. We designed a task using a program that takes force levels as inputs and has the participant trace shapes on a screen. By having participants perform with one hand, then practice with the other, and finally perform again with the initial hand, we can measure transfer as the difference in performance before and after practice with the other hand.Kinesiology and Health Educatio

Location-aware Mobile Services for a Smart City: Design, Implementation and Deployment

A smart city is a high-performance urban context, where citizens are more aware of, and more integrated into the city life, thanks to an intelligent city information system. In this paper we design, implement and deploy a smart application that retrieves and conveys to the user relevant information on the user's surroundings. This case study application let us discuss the challenges involved in creating a location-aware mobile service based on live information coming from the city IT infrastructure. The service, that is currently being deployed in the Italian city of Cesena, has been designed with the goal of being a general model for future applications. In particular, we discuss location-aware and mobile development, cloud and cluster based geographical data storage, and spatial data computation. For each of these topics we provide implementation and deployment solutions based on currently available technology. In particular we propose an architecture based on a complex On-Line Transaction Processing (OLTP) infrastructure. Furthermore, this paper represents the first comprehensive, scientific study on the subject

Evidence for Non-Essential Salt Bridges in the M-Gates of Mitochondrial Carrier Proteins

Mitochondrial carriers, which transport metabolites, nucleotides, and cofactors across the mitochondrial inner membrane, have six transmembrane α-helices enclosing a translocation pore with a central substrate binding site whose access is controlled by a cytoplasmic and a matrix gate (M-gate). The salt bridges formed by the three PX[DE]XX[RK] motifs located on the odd-numbered transmembrane α-helices greatly contribute to closing the M-gate. We have measured the transport rates of cysteine mutants of the charged residue positions in the PX[DE]XX[RK] motifs of the bovine oxoglutarate carrier, the yeast GTP/GDP carrier, and the yeast NAD+ transporter, which all lack one of these charged residues. Most single substitutions, including those of the non-charged and unpaired charged residues, completely inactivated transport. Double mutations of charged pairs showed that all three carriers contain salt bridges non-essential for activity. Two double substitutions of these non-essential charge pairs exhibited higher transport rates than their corre-sponding single mutants, whereas swapping the charged residues in these positions did not increase activity. The results demonstrate that some of the residues in the charged residue positions of the PX[DE]XX[KR] motifs are important for reasons other than forming salt bridges, probably for playing specific roles related to the substrate interaction-mediated conformational changes leading to the M-gate opening/closing

Intra-articular injections for the treatment of osteoarthritis: focus on the clinical use of hyaluronic acid.

Osteoarthritis (OA), also called degenerative joint disease, is the most frequently occurring chronic musculoskeletal disease, particularly affecting the aging population. The use of viscosupplementation, i.e. intra-articular (IA) hyaluronic acid (HA) drug therapy, to treat OA, is growing worldwide, due to important results obtained from several clinical trials, which reported IA HA-related improvements in functional activity and pain management. This review is an update of the IA use of this compound in the treatment of OA, with clinical evidence from the last few years being discussed and used to delineate new trends for the future

Using object-based geomorphometry for hydro-geomorphological analysis in a Mediterranean research catchment

Abstract. The aim of the paper is to apply an object-based geomorphometric procedure to define the runoff contribution areas and support a hydro-geomorphological analysis of a 3 km2 Mediterranean research catchment (southern Italy). Daily and sub-hourly discharge and electrical conductivity data were collected and recorded during a 3-year monitoring activity. Hydro-chemograph analyses carried out on these data revealed a strong seasonal hydrological response in the catchment that differed from the stormflow events that occur in the wet periods and in dry periods. This analysis enabled us to define the hydro-chemograph signatures related to increasing flood magnitude, which progressively involves various runoff components (baseflow, subsurface flow and surficial flow) and an increasing contributing area to discharge. Field surveys and water table/discharge measurements carried out during a selected storm event enabled us to identify and map specific runoff source areas with homogeneous geomorphological units previously defined as hydro-geomorphotypes (spring points, diffuse seepage along the main channel, seepage along the riparian corridors, diffuse outflow from hillslope taluses and concentrate sapping from colluvial hollows). Following the procedures previously proposed and used by authors for object-based geomorphological mapping, a hydro-geomorphologically oriented segmentation and classification was performed with the eCognition (Trimble, Inc.) package. The best agreement with the expert-based geomorphological mapping was obtained with weighted plan curvature at different-sized windows. By combining the hydro-chemical analysis and object-based hydro-geomorphotype map, the variability of the contribution areas was graphically modeled for the selected event, which occurred during the wet season, by using the log values of flow accumulation that better fit the contribution areas. The results allow us to identify the runoff component on hydro-chemographs for each time step and calculate a specific discharge contribution from each hydro-geomorphotype. This kind of approach could be useful when applied to similar, rainfall-dominated, forested and no-karst catchments in the Mediterranean eco-region

Desenvolvimento de sistemas agrícolas sustentáveis na região montanhosa da Mata Atlântica, Paty do Alferes, RJ.

Sistemas agrícolas da região montanhosa da Mata Atlântica; desenvolvimento de sistemas agrícolas sustentáveis; características gerais da região da Mata Atlântica; vegetação; clima; solos; aptidão das terras; áreas similares com respeito a vegetação, solos, relevo e clima; caracterização ambiental, estudo detalhado dos solos da Microbacia do Córrego da Cachoeira; Estudo semi-detalhado dos solos do Município de Paty do Alferes; uso atual das terras da Microbacia do Córrego da Cachoeira; uso atual das terras do Município de Paty do Alferes; aspectos socioeconômicos; caracterização sócio cultural do Município de Paty do Alferes; custos de produção e análise de riscos para a cultura do tomate; análise multicritério; influência do sistema agrícola sobre o meio ambiente, causas da erosão; prejuízos causados pela erosão; objetivos da pesquisa; avaliação de erosão; limites de tolerância de perdas de solo; medições de erosão na campo; quantificação da erosão através de parcelas - Wishmeier; ocorrência de metais pesados nas parcelas - Wishmeier; perdas de nutrientes causadas pela erosão; água superficial e de uso doméstico; introdução de técnicas alternativas de cultivo; área de diversificação de produção agrícola; sistemas alternativos de produção sob irrigação e melhoramento de práticas de cultivo em terras de agricultores ; sistemas de irrigação; recuperação de área degradada em terras de agricultor; monitoramento de agroquímicos e seu impacto no meio ambiente; nitratos, nitritos e fosfatos; pesticida no solo, sedimentos e vegetais; contaminação humana; disseminação e transferência de tecnologias; cursos; campanha de tríplice lavagem; feira do tomate; dias de campo; validação de tecnologias; promoção e organização de seminários, conferências e workshops; organização da comunidade; educação ambiental; resultados gerais e avaliação; base de dados georreferenciados; desenvolvimento de sistemas agrícolas sustentáveis.bitstream/item/65983/1/Sistemas-Sustentaveis-Paty-do-Alferes.pd