The economic impact of consumer copyright exceptions: a literature review

Advances in the technology available to consumers have fundamentally altered the relationship between authors, rights-holders and consumers with regard to copyrighted creative works. The copyright system in the UK is undergoing a gradual process of reform to reflect this new reality. In 2006, Andrew Gowers, a former editor of the Financial Times, presented a report into the state of intellectual property in the U.K. Among his policy recommendations were three proposed changes to the copyright exceptions system which alter the way in which consumers can interact with copyrighted works. Gowers proposed introducing copyright exceptions for: - Format shifting, for instance the transfer of a piece of music from a CD to an mp3 player. - Parody, caricature and pastiche. - Creative, transformative or derivative works. In our context, this definition includes user-generated content. Our review examines the existing literature on the possible economic effects of these proposed changes to the copyright exceptions system, specifically whether the introduction of these proposed changes would cause economic damage to rights-holders. Whilst the economic issues surrounding copyright infringement via file-sharing and commercial "mash-ups" are interesting and important, our review is focused solely on copyright

Hunting for neutral, long-lived exotica at the LHC using a missing transverse energy signature

Searches at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for neutral, long-lived particles have historically relied on the detection of displaced particles produced by their decay $\textit{within}$ the detector volume. In this paper we study the potential of the complementary signature comprising of the missing transverse energy ($E_T^{miss}$) signal, traditionally used to look for dark matter, e.g., the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), to extend the LHC coverage to models with long-lived (LL) particles when they decay $\textit{outside}$ the detector. Using CMS and ATLAS analyses at the 8 TeV LHC, we set an upper limit at the 95% confidence level (CL) on the production cross sections for two specific scenarios: (i) a model with a heavy non-standard model Higgs boson decaying to a LL scalar and (ii) an R-parity violating RPV SUSY model with a LL neutralino. We show that this method can significantly extend the LHC sensitivity to neutral, LL particles with arbitrary large lifetimes and that the limits obtained from a $E_T^{miss}$ signal are comparable to those from displaced particle searches for decay distances above a few meters. Results obtained in this study do not not depend on the specific decay channel of the LL particle and therefore are model-independent in this sense. We provide limits for the whole two-dimensional plane in terms of the mass of the LL particle and the mass of the mediator up to masses of 2 TeV including particular benchmarks studied in the original experimental papers. We have made these limits available in the form of a grid which can be used for the interpretation of various other new physics models.Comment: 28 page

Linguo-cultural competence as a cornerstone of translators' performance in the domain of intercultural business communication

Acknowledging language as an integral element of a sociocultural community highlights some sensitive areas in the realm of translation studies. Since the translator acts as a mediator between two unique cultures, the efficiency of cross-cultural interaction appears to be largely dependent on the quality of such intermediacy. The present paper aims to examine this culturally determined specificity of translation activity and consider lingua-cultural competence as a cornerstone of translators’ performance. The authors also contemplate the opposition of ‘accuracy’ vs ‘readability’ as a stumbling block for translator’s activity, and draw up a model of the lingua-cultural competence of translators specialising in intercultural business communication. Inferences made in the study rely on the data obtained from a questionnaire distributed among tutors and lecturers employed in higher educational institutions and involved in specialised translation training. The data collected were analysed based on statistical analysis that helped identify the importance of each separate skill incorporated in the lingua-cultural competence for the training of student translators specialising in intercultural business communication. This evidence was further utilised to elaborate on a set of methodological guidelines capable of developing the lingua-cultural competence of student translators specialising in intercultural business communication

b Tagging in CMS

Many of the exotic particles expected at the LHC, such as SUSY, Higgs bosons and top quarks, will decay to b quarks. This paper presents the methods used to identify b-jets at CMS. The algorithms exploit the long B hadron lifetime, semi-leptonic B decays and jet kinematics. The prospect for measuring the performance of these b-tags directly from CMS data is examined. Finally, the use of b-tagging in the High-Level Trigger is explained

The CMS Tracker Readout Front End Driver

The Front End Driver, FED, is a 9U 400mm VME64x card designed for reading out the Compact Muon Solenoid, CMS, silicon tracker signals transmitted by the APV25 analogue pipeline Application Specific Integrated Circuits. The FED receives the signals via 96 optical fibers at a total input rate of 3.4 GB/sec. The signals are digitized and processed by applying algorithms for pedestal and common mode noise subtraction. Algorithms that search for clusters of hits are used to further reduce the input rate. Only the cluster data along with trigger information of the event are transmitted to the CMS data acquisition system using the S-LINK64 protocol at a maximum rate of 400 MB/sec. All data processing algorithms on the FED are executed in large on-board Field Programmable Gate Arrays. Results on the design, performance, testing and quality control of the FED are presented and discussed

Language as an instrument of thought

I show that there are good arguments and evidence to boot that support the language as an instrument of thought hypothesis. The underlying mechanisms of language, comprising of expressions structured hierarchically and recursively, provide a perspective (in the form of a conceptual structure) on the world, for it is only via language that certain perspectives are avail- able to us and to our thought processes. These mechanisms provide us with a uniquely human way of thinking and talking about the world that is different to the sort of thinking we share with other animals. If the primary function of language were communication then one would expect that the underlying mechanisms of language will be structured in a way that favours successful communication. I show that not only is this not the case, but that the underlying mechanisms of language are in fact structured in a way to maximise computational efficiency, even if it means causing communicative problems. Moreover, I discuss evidence from comparative, neuropatho- logical, developmental, and neuroscientific evidence that supports the claim that language is an instrument of thought

Hard mtm_t Corrections as a Probe of the Symmetry Breaking Sector

Non-decoupling effects related to a large $m_t$ affecting non-oblique radiative corrections in vertices ($Z\bar{b}b$) and boxes ($B$-$\bar{B}$ mixing and $\epsilon_K$) are very sensitive to the particular mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking. We analyze these corrections in the framework of a chiral electroweak standard model and find that there is only one operator in the effective lagrangian which modifies the longitudinal part of the $W^+$ boson without touching the oblique corrections. The inclusion of this operator affects the $Z\bar{b}b$ vertex, the $B$-$\bar{B}$ mixing and the CP-violating parameter $\epsilon_K$, generating interesting correlations among the hard $m_t^4 \log m_t^2$ corrections to these observables, for example, the maximum vertex $Z b\bar{b}$ correction allowed by low energy physics is about one percent.Comment: LaTex, 8 pages, 1 postscript figure include