Do individual factors matter? A survey of scientists’ patenting in Portuguese public research organisations

This paper addresses scientists’ behaviour regarding the patenting of knowledge produced in universities and other public sector research organisations (PSROs). Recent years have witnessed a rapid growth in patenting and licensing activities by PSROs. We argue that the whole process depends to a certain extent on scientists’ willingness to disclose their inventions. Given this assumption, we conduct research into individual behaviour in order to understand scientists’ views concerning the patenting of their research results. Data from a questionnaire survey of Portuguese researchers from nine PSROs in life sciences and biotechnology is presented and analysed and complemented with in-depth interviews. The results reveal that overall the scientists surveyed show a low propensity to become involved in patenting and licensing activities, despite the fact that the majority had no “ethical” objections to the disclosure of their inventions and the commercial exploitation of these. Perceptions about the impacts of these activities on certain fundamental aspects of knowledge production and dissemination are however divergent. This may account for the low participation levels. Furthermore, most scientists perceived the personal benefits deriving from this type of activity to be low. Similarly, the majority also believed that there are many difficulties associated with the patenting process and that they receive limited support from their organisations, which lack the proper competences and structures to assist with patenting and licensing.     

Ghosts, taxonomies, and social psychology.

This article critically analyzes social psychology's assumption that psychological states can explain social behavior. On the basis of an analysis of the logic of classification systems, the author argues that there are no procedures available to independently verify the existence of these psychological states. As a consequence, explanations of social behavior are subject to continual challenge and replacement. Furthermore, it is argued that focusing on psychological states serves to inhibit the systematic study of societal changes (particularly changes in technology) that are affecting and shaping all aspects of human existence. This article describes an alternate paradigm that coordinates one dimension of societal events—technology—with changes in people's consciousness and subsequent behavior. A taxonomy of technology is described in the closing section of the article. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accounting for the use of behavior technologies in social psychology.

Considerable scholarly effort in social psychology is devoted to the development of techniques that change behavior. In this article, the social and political forces that have guided the development of these techniques are examined. Also, ethical and psychological issues associated with the use of behavior technologies are discussed. These issues arise from the fact that to change behavior, it must first be controlled. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Designing broadcasting algorithms in the postal model for message-passing systems

In many distributed-memory parallel computers and high-speed communication networks, the exact structure of the underlying communication network may be ignored. These systems assume that the network creates a complete communication graph between the processors, in which passing messages is associated with communication latencies. In this paper we explore the impact of communication latencies on the design of broadcasting algorithms for fully connected message-passing systems. For this purpose, we introduce thepostal model that incorporates a communication latency parameter 1. This parameter measures the inverse of the ratio between the time it takes an originator of a message to send the message and the time that passes until the recipient of the message receives it. We present an optimal algorithm for broadcasting one message in systems withn processors and communication latency , the running time of which is (( logn)/log( + 1)). For broadcastingm 1 messages, we first examine several generalizations of the algorithm for broadcasting one message and then analyze a family of broadcasting algorithms based on degree-d trees. All the algorithms described in this paper are practical event-driven algorithms that preserve the order of messages.     

On aspectualizing component models

Server‐side component models such as Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) add powerful abstractions to the bare ‘business objects’ layer in order to support a clean separation of server‐side application logic from other concerns such as distribution, security, transaction management and persistence. An improved separation of concerns is also the main goal of aspect‐oriented programming (AOP). This paper compares the two approaches and reasons about the possibility of substituting (parts of) component models using AOP mechanisms. We conclude that AOP is a promising approach to eliminate important shortcomings of the container‐based component approach. However, our analysis of concrete aspect‐oriented languages shows that current AOP technology is not yet mature enough to supersede component models. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stability of Some Difference Equations with Two Delays

In the framework of the general problem for clarifying the stability of the zero solution of the equation x(n) = a ₁ x(n – m) – a ₂ x(n – k) with delays k and m, some partial problems are solved. An appreciable dependence of the stability on the divisibility of one delay by the other is revealed.     

Late-life decline in well-being across adulthood in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States: Something is seriously wrong at the end of life.

Throughout adulthood and old age, levels of well-being appear to remain relatively stable. However, evidence is emerging that late in life well-being declines considerably. Using long-term longitudinal data of deceased participants in national samples from Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, we examined how long this period lasts. In all 3 nations and across the adult age range, well-being was relatively stable over age but declined rapidly with impending death. Articulating notions of terminal decline associated with impending death, we identified prototypical transition points in each study between 3 and 5 years prior to death, after which normative rates of decline steepened by a factor of 3 or more. The findings suggest that mortality-related mechanisms drive late-life changes in well-being and highlight the need for further refinement of psychological concepts about how and when late-life declines in psychosocial functioning prototypically begin. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Epilepsy or paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis?

A 71-year-old man was admitted due to brain infarction. An abnormal floating mass was found in the right atrium by echocardiography. The mass was assumed to be a thrombus. The patient was failed to be in danger of pulmonary embolism, so it was decided to remove surgically. The thrombus was removed under cardiopulmonary bypass including the atrial wall where it was attached, because it was difficult to rule out the possibility of cardiac tumor macroscopically. The tumor showed pathological findings of thrombus. Postoperative course was uneventful.