Perceptions of Intellectual Property:A Review

In “The right to good ideas: patents and the poor”, The Economist depicts two driving forces in the contemporary discourse on IP and globalization. The one is interested in advancing the knowledge economy, an approach based on the belief that knowledge is the driving factor behind economic growth. The other resides on a belief that IP is a major means to advance the process of globalization. While the former is strongly motivated by new economic growth theory, as for example advanced by Stanford professor Paul Romer, the latter is based on typical anti-globalization arguments, such as for example the position that the IP system helps multinational companies to build up monopolies to the detriment of the poor, drives small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and local business in developing countries out of business and increases prices for consumer products, be they pharmaceuticals or software. The purpose of this review is to help understand the current discourse on intellectual property, to grasp underlying themes, assumptions and connotations associated with the term “IP”, so as to identify paths leading to a more comprehensive understanding of IP and the opportunities and pitfalls it may provide

Nearly optimal robust secret sharing

Abstract: We prove that a known approach to improve Shamir's celebrated secret sharing scheme; i.e., adding an information-theoretic authentication tag to the secret, can make it robust for n parties against any collusion of size δn, for any constant δ ∈ (0; 1/2). This result holds in the so-called “nonrushing” model in which the n shares are submitted simultaneously for reconstruction. We thus finally obtain a simple, fully explicit, and robust secret sharing scheme in this model that is essentially optimal in all parameters including the share size which is k(1+o(1))+O(κ), where k is the secret length and κ is the security parameter. Like Shamir's scheme, in this modified scheme any set of more than δn honest parties can efficiently recover the secret. Using algebraic geometry codes instead of Reed-Solomon codes, the share length can be decreased to a constant (only depending on δ) while the number of shares n can grow independently. In this case, when n is large enough, the scheme satisfies the “threshold” requirement in an approximate sense; i.e., any set of δn(1 + ρ) honest parties, for arbitrarily small ρ > 0, can efficiently reconstruct the secret

Two Empirical Regimes of the Planetary Mass-Radius Relation

Today, with the large number of detected exoplanets and improved measurements, we can reach the next step of planetary characterization. Classifying different populations of planets is not only important for our understanding of the demographics of various planetary types in the galaxy, but also for our understanding of planet formation. We explore the nature of two regimes in the planetary mass-radius (M-R) relation. We suggest that the transition between the two regimes of "small" and "large" planets, occurs at a mass of 124 \pm 7, M_Earth and a radius of 12.1 \pm 0.5, R_Earth. Furthermore, the M-R relation is R \propto M^{0.55\pm 0.02} and R \propto M^{0.01\pm0.02} for small and large planets, respectively. We suggest that the location of the breakpoint is linked to the onset of electron degeneracy in hydrogen, and therefore, to the planetary bulk composition. Specifically, it is the characteristic minimal mass of a planet which consists of mostly hydrogen and helium, and therefore its M-R relation is determined by the equation of state of these materials. We compare the M-R relation from observational data with the one derived by population synthesis calculations and show that there is a good qualitative agreement between the two samples.Comment: accepted for publication in A&

Paradigmatic Frames from British Colonization to Today, and Beyond

This paper offers a template for understanding and analyzing racialization as a paradigm. Further, the template is applied to the North American case – an important one because it has endured and spread across the globe despite the enormous weight of scientific evidence against it. The fallacy of race (and in particular the North American origin Anglo variant) endures for two reasons. First, social agents seeking to gain or maintain power and control over paradigm-relevant resources benefit from reinvesting in pseudoscientific racial paradigms. Second, new science proving the fallacy of race is ignored because ignoring new paradigmatic science is in fact the way normal science operates. Thus, a paradigmatic analysis of race may help to explain why current social science approaches to the demise of racial thought may be ineffective

Boolean Routing on High Degree Chordal Ring Networks

Over the past twenty-five years, the telecommunication field has evolved rapidly. Telephone and computer networks, now nearly ubiquitous, provide access to voice, data and video services throughout the world. As networking technologies evolve and proliferate, researchers develop new traffic routing strategies. The problem of routing in a distributed system has been investigated and issues concerning Boolean routing schemes have been considered. All compact routing techniques minimise time and space complexity. A good routing algorithm optimises the time and space complexity and a routing algorithm that has O(1) time complexity and O(log n) space complexity for high degree chordal ring has been found. A Boolean Routing Scheme (BRS) has been applied on ring topology and regular chordal ring of degree three. It was found that the regular chordal ring of degree three can be represented geometrically. the regular chordal ring of degree three has been categorised into two categories; the first is the regular chordal ring of degree three that satisfies the following formula n mod 4 = 0 and the second other is n mod 4≠0, where n is the number of nodes that the graph contains. A BRS that requires O(log n) bits of storage at each node, O(1) time complexity to compute a shortest path to any destination for the regular chordal ring of degree three and Ө(log n) bits of storage at each node. O(1) time complexity to compute a shortest path to any destination for the ring topologies has been shown. The BRS has been applied on chordal ring of degree six. it has been found that the chordal ring of degree six can be represented geometrically and the representation would be in three dimensions (in the space). Very little is known about routing on high degree chordal rings. A BRS that requires O(log n) bits of storage at each node ,and 0(1) time complexity to compute a shortest path to any destination for the chordal ring of degree six topologyhas been shown. The chordal ring 0(27;9;3) has been considered as a case to apply BRS

Single phase Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) : simulation and construction.

Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) is used to control the power flow in the transmission systems by controlling the impedance, voltage magnitude and phase angle. This controller offers advantages in terms of static and dynamic operation of the power system. It also brings in new challenges in power electronics and power system design. The basic structure of the UPFC consists of two voltage source inverter (VSI); where one converter is connected in parallel to the transmission line while the other is in series with the transmission line. The main scope of this paper involves the designing of a single phase UPFC using Matlab and Simulink software, and constructing a lab scale model of the UPFC. A microcontroller program has been developed to provide the required phase shift. The experimental result which has been obtained from a lab scale system showed a good agreement with the simulation result

Application of inverter based shunt device for voltage sag mitigation due to starting of an induction motor load

This paper shows a study of the static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) behaviors for voltage sag mitigation to an induction motor. The proposed of STATCOM stability model is justified based on the basic operation characteristics of phase control strategies. The simulation of 6 pulses STATCOM based on voltage source inverter (VSI) using Matlab Simulink is presented to show its good performance under balanced voltage sag condition due to the motor starting. Experimental testing has been made by using thyristor firing board control (FS36M). The STATCOM response of compensated reactive power to the system during voltage sag has been shown. Finally simulation results and experimental results have been described and compared once and good performance has been obtained

Mitigation Unbalance Nonlinear Loads and Dissimilar Line Currents Using Shunt Active Power Filter SAPF

Power quality has grown from obscurity to a major issue in last ten years. The new technologies lead to great demand of power electronic devices that leads to a distortion the quality of voltages and currents of power system in other hand many sensitive loads need a high degree of power quality thus it is important to have the suitable solutions. Several researches and studies regarding the power quality and tray to solve the problems of nonlinear loads regarding a union case of a balance three phase and similarity of line currents, while in fact the unbalance and dissimilar cases are the prevailing cases. This paper proposed a new controller method for compensating unbalance nonlinear loads and dissimilar in line currents as well as eliminate the negative and zero sequence components of line currents using SAPF. Also the proposed control method is compared with a will known method used for compensating nonlinear loads in many researches known as instantaneous power pq theory. Finally, fuzzy logic control is used to optimize the performance of the compensator