INFORMATION OVERLOAD AT THE U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE: REFRAMING THE DuTY OF DISCLOSURE IN PATENT LAW AS A SEARCH AND FILTER PROBLEM

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) receives more prior art submissions by patent applicants than its patent examiners have the capacity to process. Although applicant prior art submissions are highly likely to contain references material to prosecution, evidence suggests that overburdened examiners often fail to utilize references submitted by applicants in their examination of patent applications. The information overload suffered by patent examiners has deleterious effects on patent quality, since examiners fail to identify and apply the references most relevant to the examination ofpatent applications. The vision of patent examiners as perfect filters of patentability and of information as always benefiting the public good is both idealistic and unrealistic. Despite their expertise, patent examiners are human and fallible, vulnerable to the effects of information processing overload and the cognitive biases attendant to decision-making by a boundedly rational actor. Failing to address these problems will likely result in frustrated applicants, overburdened patent examiners, and reduced patent quality. This Article proposes to solve both the plague of inequitable conduct allegations in litigation and the administrative burdens of complying with the duty of disclosure by reframing disclosure obligations for the information age. Reframing the duty of disclosure in this fashion would require no modifications to statutory provisions, few alterations to administrative rules and regulations, and only modest changes to existing case law. Thus, the approach suggested in this Article is both legally conservative and administratively feasible

Daytime sky polarization calibration limitations

The daytime sky has recently been demonstrated as a useful calibration tool for deriving polarization cross-talk properties of large astronomical telescopes. The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope and other large telescopes under construction can benefit from precise polarimetric calibration of large mirrors. Several atmospheric phenomena and instrumental errors potentially limit the technique’s accuracy. At the 3.67-m AEOS telescope on Haleakala, we performed a large observing campaign with the HiVIS spectropolarimeter to identify limitations and develop algorithms for extracting consistent calibrations. Effective sampling of the telescope optical configurations and filtering of data for several derived parameters provide robustness to the derived Mueller matrix calibrations. Second-order scattering models of the sky show that this method is relatively insensitive to multiple-scattering in the sky, provided calibration observations are done in regions of high polarization degree. The technique is also insensitive to assumptions about telescope-induced polarization, provided the mirror coatings are highly reflective. Zemax-derived polarization models show agreement between the functional dependence of polarization predictions and the corresponding on-sky calibrations

RNAi reveals proteins for metabolism and protein processing associated with Langat virus infection in Ixodes scapularis (black-legged tick) ISE6 cells

Tick-borne flaviviruses (TBFs) cause thousands of human cases of encephalitis worldwide each year, with some TBF infections progressing to hemorrhagic fever. TBFs are of medical and veterinary importance and strategies to reduce flavivirus transmission by the tick vector may have significant application. Analyses of the proteome of ISE6 cells derived from the black legged tick, Ixodes scapularis infected with the TBF, Langat virus (LGTV), have provided insights into proteins and cellular processes involved with LGTV infection. Methods: RNA interference (RNAi)-induced knockdown of transcripts was used to investigate the role of ten tick proteins in the LGTV infection cycle in ISE6 cells. LGTV-infected cells were separately transfected with dsRNA corresponding to each gene of interest and the effect on LGTV genome replication and release of infectious virus was assessed by RT-qPCR and plaque assays, respectively. Results: RNAi-induced knockdown of transcripts for two enzymes that likely function in amino acid, carbohydrate, lipid, terpenoid/polykeytide and vitamin metabolism, and a transcript for one protein of unknown function were associated with decreased replication of the LGTV genome and release of infectious virus from cells. The knockdown of transcripts for five enzymes predicted to function in metabolism, a protein likely associated with folding, sorting and degradation, and a protein of unknown function was associated with a decrease only in the amount of infectious LGTV released from cells. Conclusions: These data suggest tick proteins potentially associated with metabolism and protein processing may be involved in LGTV infection of ISE6 cells. Our study provides information to begin to elucidate the function of these proteins and identify targets for the development of new interventions aimed at controlling the transmission of TBFs

Measurement invariance of a direct behavior rating multi item scale across occasions

Direct Behavior Rating (DBR) as a behavioral progress monitoring tool can be designed as longitudinal assessment with only short intervals between measurement points. The reliability of these instruments has been mostly evaluated in observational studies with small samples based on generalizability theory. However, for a standardized use in the pedagogical field, a larger and broader sample is required in order to assess measurement invariance between different participant groups and over time. Therefore, we constructed a DBR, the Questionnaire for Monitoring Behavior in Schools (QMBS) with multiple items to measure the occurrence of specific externalizing and internalizing student classroom behaviors on a Likert scale (1 = never to 7 = always). In a pilot study, two trained raters observed 16 primary education students and rated the student behavior over all items with a satisfactory reliability. In the main study, 108 regular primary school students, 97 regular secondary students, and 14 students in a clinical setting were rated daily over one week (five measurement points). Item response theory (IRT) analyses confirmed the technical adequacy of the instrument and latent growth models demonstrated the instrument’s stability over time. Further development of the instrument and study designs to implement DBRs is discussed

The Solar-System-Scale Disk Around AB Aurigae

The young star AB Aurigae is surrounded by a complex combination of gas-rich and dust dominated structures. The inner disk which has not been studied previously at sufficient resolution and imaging dynamic range seems to contain very little gas inside a radius of least 130 astronomical units (AU) from the star. Using adaptive-optics coronagraphy and polarimetry we have imaged the dust in an annulus between 43 and 302 AU from the star, a region never seen before. An azimuthal gap in an annulus of dust at a radius of 102 AU, along with a clearing at closer radii inside this annulus, suggests the formation of at least one small body at an orbital distance of about 100 AU. This structure seems consistent with crude models of mean motion resonances, or accumulation of material at two of the Lagrange points relative to the putative object and the star. We also report a low significance detection of a point source in this outer annulus of dust. This source may be an overdensity in the disk due to dust accreting onto an unseen companion. An alternate interpretation suggests that the object's mass is between 5 and 37 times the mass of Jupiter. The results have implications for circumstellar disk dynamics and planet formation.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal, V. 680, June 10, 200

Comparative assessment of fluorescent proteins for in vivo imaging in an animal model system.

Fluorescent protein tags are fundamental tools used to visualize gene products and analyze their dynamics in vivo. Recent advances in genome editing have expedited the precise insertion of fluorescent protein tags into the genomes of diverse organisms. These advances expand the potential of in vivo imaging experiments and facilitate experimentation with new, bright, photostable fluorescent proteins. Most quantitative comparisons of the brightness and photostability of different fluorescent proteins have been made in vitro, removed from biological variables that govern their performance in cells or organisms. To address the gap, we quantitatively assessed fluorescent protein properties in vivo in an animal model system. We generated transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans strains expressing green, yellow, or red fluorescent proteins in embryos and imaged embryos expressing different fluorescent proteins under the same conditions for direct comparison. We found that mNeonGreen was not as bright in vivo as predicted based on in vitro data but is a better tag than GFP for specific kinds of experiments, and we report on optimal red fluorescent proteins. These results identify ideal fluorescent proteins for imaging in vivo in C. elegans embryos and suggest good candidate fluorescent proteins to test in other animal model systems for in vivo imaging experiments

New Coordinative Compounds with 4-(4’-pyridyl)pyridinium Disubstituted Monoylides

The complexes with manganese(II), iron(II), cobalt(II), nickel(II) and copper(II) of 2-(4, 4’-bipyridin-1-ium-1-yl)-1-(4-bromophenylamino)-3-(4-methoxyphenyl)-3-oxo-1-thioxopropan-2-ide (ylide, Y) were synthesized and characterized. The obtained compounds with 1 : 2 metal/ligand ratios have been characterized by FTIR, UV Vis spectroscopy, ESI MS spectrometry, molecular conductance, magnetic measurements and thermal analysis. The ylide ligand forms chelates with metallic (II) ions through their amide nitrogen and oxygen atoms

Population genetic diversity and fitness in multiple environments

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>When a large number of alleles are lost from a population, increases in individual homozygosity may reduce individual fitness through inbreeding depression. Modest losses of allelic diversity may also negatively impact long-term population viability by reducing the capacity of populations to adapt to altered environments. However, it is not clear how much genetic diversity within populations may be lost before populations are put at significant risk. Development of tools to evaluate this relationship would be a valuable contribution to conservation biology. To address these issues, we have created an experimental system that uses laboratory populations of an estuarine crustacean, <it>Americamysis bahia </it>with experimentally manipulated levels of genetic diversity. We created replicate cultures with five distinct levels of genetic diversity and monitored them for 16 weeks in both permissive (ambient seawater) and stressful conditions (diluted seawater). The relationship between molecular genetic diversity at presumptive neutral loci and population vulnerability was assessed by AFLP analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Populations with very low genetic diversity demonstrated reduced fitness relative to high diversity populations even under permissive conditions. Population performance decreased in the stressful environment for all levels of genetic diversity relative to performance in the permissive environment. Twenty percent of the lowest diversity populations went extinct before the end of the study in permissive conditions, whereas 73% of the low diversity lines went extinct in the stressful environment. All high genetic diversity populations persisted for the duration of the study, although population sizes and reproduction were reduced under stressful environmental conditions. Levels of fitness varied more among replicate low diversity populations than among replicate populations with high genetic diversity. There was a significant correlation between AFLP diversity and population fitness overall; however, AFLP markers performed poorly at detecting modest but consequential losses of genetic diversity. High diversity lines in the stressful environment showed some evidence of relative improvement as the experiment progressed while the low diversity lines did not.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The combined effects of reduced average fitness and increased variability contributed to increased extinction rates for very low diversity populations. More modest losses of genetic diversity resulted in measurable decreases in population fitness; AFLP markers did not always detect these losses. However when AFLP markers indicated lost genetic diversity, these losses were associated with reduced population fitness.</p