Considerations of providing patent and trademark assistance services at one's library

PurposeThe authors' goal in writing this article was to provide background information and detailed considerations to assist those wishing to provide patent and trademark assistance at their libraries. The major considerations include staffing, spaces and resources, with the time commitment from the staff being the most significant.Design/methodology/approachThis paper combined the experiences of an author relatively new to patent and trademark librarianship with one who has years of experience. These were used in tandem with knowledge gained from a decade of attendance at annual week-long seminars at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as well as by way of a comprehensive literature review.FindingsThe main commitment needed in providing patent and trademark services to the public is not money but the investment of time, which includes professional development, staffing, teaching classes and workshops, outreach and consultations.Originality/valueThe information in this paper should serve as guidance to anyone new to providing patent and trademark services within their libraries, including those at Patent and Trademark Resource Centers (PTRCs), Patent Information Centres (PATLIBs) and beyond. Although articles have been published on various aspects of intellectual property (IP) and libraries, a comprehensive guide to providing patent and trademark services has yet to be published.

A New Case of Scientific Dishonesty in the Field of Parapsychology

The present article informs about a case of prolonged scientific dishonesty in the field of parapsychology. It emerged that Alejandro Parra, an active member of the parapsychological community since about three decades, has published substantially plagiarized books and articles since at least 2007. Currently, I am aware of 20 publications that contain plagiarized sections or consist almost entirely of plagiarism. In the following, I present striking examples of such plagiarized texts and provide background information about the development of this case. Parra even presented research results obtained by others as his own research results, which amounts to data fabrication. Therefore, I conclude one cannot trust any of his books and articles. Even Parra’s publications that contain data obtained in surveys or experimental studies must be disregarded by the scientific community unless the validity of their raw data has been very carefully established by examinations performed by others.

Guidance and Practice in Planning Cycling Facilities in Europe—An Overview

The provision of convenient, safe and seamless facilities for cyclists is one core success factor in promoting cycling as a mode of transport. Cycling infrastructures and planning philosophies differ greatly between countries, but there is no systematic overview or comparison of similarities and dissimilarities. The aim of this study is to provide an in-depth international overview of guidance material for cycling facilities in European countries and to develop recommendations for advancing provisions for cyclists. International guidance materials for cycling facilities along street sections are collated, systemised and compared. For researchers, the findings provide background information to better understand cycling behaviour and safety. For planners, the findings support their efforts to support cycling and to improve guidance materials. The results show that, in general, countries that are just beginning to promote cycling tend to offer a greater variety of cycling infrastructures in their guidance materials than more mature cycling countries. Countries differ in whether they prefer to put cyclists on the street level or on the sidewalk and whether they mix cyclists with other user groups in the same space. There was even greater variability among countries in the criteria for selecting types of cycling facilities than in the design characteristics (width, buffer zones, etc.).

Microplastics in the Marine Environment: Sources, Fates, Impacts and Microbial Degradation

The serious global microplastic pollution has attracted public concern in recent years. Microplastics are widely distributed in various environments and their pollution is already ubiquitous in the ocean system, which contributes to exponential concern in the past decade and different research areas. Due to their tiny size coupled with the various microbial communities in aquatic habitats capable of accumulating organic pollutants, abundant literature is available for assessing the negative impact of MPs on the physiology of marine organisms and eventually on the human health. This study summarizes the current literature on MPs in the marine environment to obtain a better knowledge about MP contamination. This review contains three sections: (1) sources and fates of MPs in the marine environment, (2) impacts of MPs on marine organisms, and (3) bacteria for the degradation of marine MPs. Some measures and efforts must be taken to solve the environmental problems caused by microplastics. The knowledge in this review will provide background information for marine microplastics studies and management strategies in future.

Deconstructing Racial Stigma in the Therapeutic Relationship

This chapter seeks to deconstruct racial stigma of mental illness held by counselors within the therapeutic relationship. The authors will provide counselors with practical tools that will help them work through their own prejudices, discriminations, and stereotypes about people of color and mental illness. This chapter will provide background information on stigma, specifically racial stigma, the process for incorporating theoretical variation in clinical work, and its importance. Additionally, the authors will explore best practices that will help counselors obtain the knowledge and skills needed to effectively work with a variety of clients who are racially and ethnically diverse.

The right contextual information determining the success of communication on translation

As relevance theory shows, the success of communication crucially depends on the right contextual information being highly accessible at the right time. Thus it is not sufficient that this information is physically available somewhere in the receptor language; to become effective for comprehension it must be highly accessible mentally to the reader or hearer at the time when it is needed. Thus while it is true in a general way that the translation of Old Testament portions is important because they provide background information necessary for understanding the New Testament, for it to be profitable for the comprehension of a particular New Testament passage, readers must be able to access in their minds just those pieces of information from the Old Testament that are relevant to this specific passage.

Grassroots Organization and Justice Through Social Media

This chapter will provide the reader with information on the importance of grassroots organization in addressing social justice issues for speech-language pathologists (SLP). The authors provide background information on the use of social media to promote social justice efforts. The chapter also identifies and discusses the development and implementation of two online platforms that have been effective in raising awareness about the importance of diversity, advocacy, and social justice issues in the field of speech-language pathology. It provides the reader with important information on the issues and problems in the field of SLP that led to the development of the two online platforms and the processes involved with developing them. Finally, the chapter concludes with a description of previous and current goals and outcomes, along with future endeavors of both platforms and recommendations for others who are interested in using social media as a tool to transform professional environments to facilitate justice within the discipline and society.

Foreground and background in the narrative discourse of Luke's Gospel: Some remarks on the function of the Greek imperfect and pluperfect indicative tense-forms

The distinction between foreground and background in narrative discourse is a pervasive phenomenon in the literatures of the world, and languages have a variety of devices to indicate this distinction. These include, amongst others, the use of specific tense-forms of the verb, morphosyntactic features, the distinction between events and non-events, lexical verb types (achievement, accomplishment, activity, state, etc.), voice, and word order. The use of the tense-forms of the verb to indicate foreground and background has been studied in depth in a variety of languages. In the last three decades there have been a number of studies on the Greek of the New Testament, following the upsurge of interest in the aspect and time characteristics of Greek in the early nineties of the previous century. This study focused on the function of the Greek imperfect and pluperfect indicative tense-forms (henceforth, imperfect and pluperfect) to indicate foreground and background in the Gospel of Luke’s narrative discourse. The study also included embedded narratives, such as the parables of Jesus. It did not include direct and indirect discourse, and comments by the author. The findings are that the major function of the imperfect in the Gospel of Luke’s narrative discourse is to provide background information, and particularly to set the scene for events in the main storyline. In this function the link between the imperfect and background information is very strong. The imperfect also typically occurs in the introduction of participants in a scene by means of presentational articulation, in situations where background details are provided, and in epilogues. The imperfect appears in explanatory clauses too, but the aorist indicative is also used. In a few instances the imperfect is used to express foreground information. Although occurences of the pluperfect are rare in Luke’s Gospel, it is used a few times to express background information, especially to set the scene and to provide background details. It is rarely used to indicate foreground information, and occurences are restricted to verbs like oἶδα, ἵστημι, εἴωθα, etc., where the pluperfect has the force of an aorist indicative. In a number of instances the function of the pluperfect is purely descriptive, for example, as part of a restrictive relative clause.

Spermatophyte Flora of Liangzi Lake Wetland Nature Reserve

Based on route and sample-plot survey, plant resources of Liangzi Lake Wetland Nature Reserve were investigated. The result showed that there were 503 species of spermatophyte belonging to 296 genera of 86 families. There were 5 species under national first and second level protection. The dominant families of spermatophyte contained 20 species and above. The dominant genera of spermatophyte contained 4 species and below. The 86 families of spermatophyte can be divided into 7 distribution types and 4 variants. Tropic distribution type was dominant, accounting for 70.83% in total (excluding cosmopolitans). The 296 genera of spermatophyte can be divided into 14 distribution types and 9 variants. Temperate elements were a little more than tropical elements, accounting for 50.84% and 49.16% in total (excluding cosmopolitans) respectively. Reserve had 3 Chinese endemic genera, reflecting certain ancient and relict. The purpose of the research is to provide background information and scientific basis for the protection, construction, management and rational utilization of plant resources in the reserve.

Technology to Enhance Learning for All Students

Technology is at the forefront of today's workforce. Comparatively, K-12 schools are incorporating technology into K-12 classrooms and instructional teaching methods and strategies. Research has indicted that students who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds may not only have similar access to technology as those from more affluent backgrounds, but students from low socioeconomic backgrounds also use technology for reasons that are different and commonly not academic reasons. This chapter will provide background information on current issues related to the use of technology among students of insight into issues and challenges related to integrating technology into K-12 classrooms, the role of funding in economically poorer school districts, and key instructional strategies for using technology and new and emerging technology in the K-12 classroom. This chapter will conclude with providing recommendations for ensuring access and success for all students.