Теория и практика перевода специальных текстов. Учебное пособие [для студентов специальности 45.05.01 «Перевод и переводоведение», специализации «Проф
.pdf2)Design patents may be granted to anyone who invents a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture; and
3)Plant patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant.
The patent law specifies the general field of subject matter that can be patented and the conditions under which a patent may be obtained.
In the language of the statute, any person who “invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent,” subject to the conditions and requirements of the law. The word “process” is defined by law as a process, act or method, and primarily includes industrial or technical processes. The term “machine” used in the statute needs no explanation. The term “manufacture” refers to articles that are made, and includes all manufactured articles. The term “composition of matter” relates to chemical compositions and may include mixtures of ingredients as well as new chemical compounds. These classes of subject matter taken together include practically everything that is made by man and the processes for making the products.
The patent law specifies that the subject matter must be “useful.” The term “useful” in this connection refers to the condition that the subject matter has a useful purpose, and also includes operativeness, that is, a machine which will not operate to perform the intended purpose would not be called useful, and therefore would not be granted a patent.
Interpretations of the statute by the courts have defined the limits of the field of subject matter that can be patented, thus it has been held that the laws of nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas are not patentable subject matter.
A patent cannot be obtained upon a mere idea or suggestion. The patent is granted upon the new machine, manufacture, etc., as has been said, and not upon the idea or suggestion of the new machine. A complete description of the actual machine or other subject matter for which a patent is sought is required.
Text 21: Types of Molding Machines
Modern molding machines successfully perform a considerable amount of work that was done by hand.
Those molding machines that are used primarily for packing sand in flasks can be classified as squeezer machines, jar (or jolt) machines, jolt
91
squeezers, and sand slingers. Other types of machines employed in molding are pattern-draw machines (stripping-plate machines and stripper machines) rollover machines, combination machines, vibrators, and others.
The squeezer machine rams sand into the flask, which is placed between the machine table and an overhead plate, thus obtaining uniform density of the sand contained in the flask.
The jar or jolt machine consists of a rugged base cylinder and piston which is attached to the machine table. The table is lifted by air pressure directed against the piston from below, and is then permitted to drop. This action produces a jar which rams the molding sand evenly in the flask. The operation is very rapid, and some of the jolt machines used for small flasks give more than a hundred blows per minute.
The jar-squeezer machine, also called the jolt-squeezer machine, combines the operating principles of the jolt machine and the squeezer machine. A complete mold, drag and cope, is produced by means of this machine.
Machines called sand slingers are sand-filling and ramming devices used in the rapid molding of large castings. These machines can be used in combination with other molding devices such as the roll-over machine and the pattern-draw machine.
Machines of various kinds have been developed for the purpose of drawing pattern out of the mold. There are two types of pattern-drawing machines: the stripping-plate machine and the stripper.
In the stripping-plate machine, the pattern is fitted through a plate that fits accurately around the pattern. The patterns are drawn through the plate, either by moving the pattern supports down with a lever or by raising the plate and the mold half up, free from the pattern. The stripping-plate machine is best adapted to that class of work which offers difficulties in drawing the pattern from the sand.
A stripper is a machine that either lifts the mold away from the pattern or lifts the pattern away from the mold.
Text 22: Green Buildings
As the days go by, a growing concern about the planet is coming into existence. Stearns Custom Homes specializes in helping new home owners not only understand the importance of these two things, but also to bring
92
these two things into fruition in the design and completion of a new custom home. Not only are you contributing the health of the environment, but you are also reducing the cost of those monthly bills. Building a green home is good for the environment, and good for your wallet - good for the planet, and good for the self. Green Building, also known as green construction or sustainable building, is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from sitting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and deconstruction. This practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort. While the practices, or technologies, employed in green building are constantly evolving and may differ from region to region, there are fundamental principles that persist from which the method is derived: Sitting and Structure Design Efficiency, Energy Efficiency, Water Efficiency, Materials Efficiency, Indoor Environmental Quality Enhancement, Operations and Maintenance Optimization. The essence of green building is an optimization of one or more of these principles. On the aesthetic side of green architecture or sustainable design is the philosophy of designing a building that is in harmony with the natural features and resources surrounding the site. There are several key steps in designing sustainable buildings: specify «green» building materials from local sources, reduce loads, optimize systems, and generate on-site renewable energy. Reducing environmental impact Green building practices aim to reduce the environmental impact of buildings. Buildings account for a large amount of land use, energy and water consumption, and air and atmosphere alteration. Considering the statistics, reducing the amount of natural resources buildings consume and the amount of pollution given off is seen as crucial for future sustainability. The environmental impact of buildings is often underestimated, while the perceived costs of green buildings are overestimated. A recent survey by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development finds that green costs are overestimated by 300 percent, as key players in real estate and construction estimate the additional cost at 17 percent above conventional construction. Goals of green building The concept of sustainable development can be traced to the energy (especially fossil oil) crisis and the environment pollution concern in the
93
1970s. Green building movement in the U.S. originated from the need and desire for more energy efficient and environmentally friendly construction practices. There are a number of motives to building green, including environmental, economic, and social benefits. However, modern sustainability initiatives call for an integrated and synergistic design to both new construction and in the retrofitting of an existing structure. Also known as sustainable design, this approach integrates the building life-cycle with each green practice employed with a design-purpose to create a synergy amongst the practices used. Green building brings together a vast array of practices and techniques to reduce and ultimately eliminate the impacts of buildings on the environment and human health. It often emphasizes taking advantage of renewable resources, e.g., using sunlight through passive solar, active solar, and photovoltaic techniques and using plants and trees through green roofs, rain gardens. Many other techniques, such as using packed gravel or permeable concrete instead of conventional concrete or asphalt to enhance replenishment of ground water, are used as well.
2. Green architecture of city
Planting of greenery cities — one of actual problems of our time. Different projects, realized in Russia and in the European countries, are called to help city municipal services, the directors of enterprises, architects and landscape designers to incarnate in life the initiatives on planting of greenery. Large cities transformed to the middle of 20th age in «stone jungles», aggressive in relation to a man. In the whole world already a long ago came to the conclusion about the necessity of harmonization of city space. Flowers on the streets of European cities became the general and ordinary phenomenon, but they not at all cheer up less than from it . Too densely standings houses and asphalted streets sometimes do not abandon a place for laying out of flower-gardens. And here the vertical planting of greenery comes for help. Suspended floral containers, balcony boxes for plants, the floor bowls of unusual forms become the necessary attribute of many city streets today. They allow to economize space and do a little flowering oasis almost any corner of city.
Variants «revivals» facade
But such traditional measures the vertical planting of greenery of the European cities is not limited to. A facade , thickly strung by lianas, left off
94
to be exceptional belonging of out-of-town villa. French, German, Swiss architects, workings in this direction, as early as 80s 20th ages created the standards of combination of architecture and vegetation, and in our time this practice got wide distribution. In office building in Santyago (Chile), built Enrike Braunom and Boreas of Uydobro, lianas, risings on the trellis-works of facade, remind jalousies, protecting internal apartments from a sun. American architect Andzhela Danadeva converted the atrium of the recently built shopping center in Seattle in real hangings, more precisely, terrace gardens, where it is possible to find a little waterfall even. As a result this garden became the favorite place of meetings for the habitants of city.
Antifunctionalism
Telling about «green architecture» it is impossible not to mention work of Fridenraykha Khundertvassera - nearly brightest figure in architecture of end of 20th age. Khundertvasser was convinced an antifunctionalist - projects built by him deny everything, that added in modern architecture by an urbanism and standardization. A house, built Khundertvasserom in Vienna from 1977 to 1986, became by the architectural manifest. For us he is interesting foremost that on all flat elements of building - roof, balconies, terraces — earth was poured and trees, bushes, flowers and simply lawn grass, are landed. As a result building looks as the forest with unusual buildings bedded in the middle of. So principle of harmonious union of man with nature, which Khundertvasser preached on words and in business, works. «Green roofs», propagandized by Khundertvasser, behave rather to the area of the horizontal planting of greenery. However lately architects carry out tests and on planting of greenery of vertical surfaces. So, English architects Khizer Ekroyd and Dan Kharvi began the experiments from that placed the seed of plants on the wall of the abandoned shanty in the medieval mountain hamlet of Italy. In 2003 Kharvi and Ekroyd adorned a grass the interior of the neglected church of Dilston-grouv in London, in a year - are walls of burial vault XVIII ages on the city cemetery of Riga. Then, already in Sweden, the couple of architects presented a floating lawn on the court of public.
«Vertical gardens»
For other side of La-mansh lives and works the French botanist and designer Patrick Blank, known in the whole world as an inventor of «vertical gardens». Usually hanging gardens are traditional horizontal trays, gap-filling
95
earth and set on a vertical frame above each other. In Blank's «vertical gardens» no trays are present, and all thickness of setting, not counting escapes, does not exceed a few centimeters. And its weight is small enough and does not create loadings on the walls of structure. The whole system of fastening of plants variety of which almost restrictedly nothing is here foreseen. Such garden is a metallic frame, fastened on a wall. Landing to 30 different plants on every square meter of composition, it is possible to create surprising on relief vertical landscape. Through the network of tubes, hidden after a plastic, nourishing solution, containing mineral elements, necessary for their growth, acts to the plants. A building wall, hidden after such decoration, is not moistened thus - water to it does not pass and inflicts no damages. The first composition Patrick Blank created in 1988, and since his creations adorned the walls of a few ten of buildings. It is hotels, shops, headquarters of different companies. Thus «vertical gardens» found application both outside of buildings and from within. It is even possible to find them in a few private houses. The latest creation of Patrick Blanka decorates the new Paris museum of Kuay Branl. It was opened only in June, 2006 and at once became one of sights of Paris. And on a current year realization of a few projects of Form is set in Malaysia, Qatar, Belgium, Vietnam and Korea.
Text 23: Bonds
Bond markets are important components of capital markets. Bonds are fixed-income securities – securities that promise the holder a specified set of payments. The value of a bond (like the value of any other asset) is the present value of the income stream one expects to receive from holding the bond. This has several implications:
1.Bond prices vary inversely with market interest rates. Since the stream of payments usually is fixed no matter what subsequently happens to interest rates, higher rates reduce the present value of the expected payments, and thus the price.
2.Bonds are generally adversely affected by inflation. The reason is that higher expected inflation raises market interest rates and therefore reduces the present value of the stream of fixed payments. Some bonds (ones issued by the Israeli government, for example) are indexed for inflation. If,
96
for example, inflation is 10 per cent per year, then the income from the bond rises to compensate for this inflation. With perfect indexation the change in expected payments due to inflation exactly offsets the inflation-caused change in market interest rates, so that the current price of the bond is unaffected.
3.The greater the uncertainty about whether the payment will be made (the risk that the issuer will default on the promised payments), the lower the "expected" payment to bondholders and the lower the value of the bond.
4.Bonds whose payments are subjected to lower taxation provide investors with higher expected after-tax payments. Since investors are interested in after-tax income, such bonds sell for higher prices. The major classes of bond issuers are the U.S. government, corporations, and municipal governments. The default risk and tax status differ from one kind of bond to another. The U.S. government is extremely unlikely to default on promised payments to its bondholders. Thus, virtually all of the variation in the value of its bonds is due to changes in market interest rates. That is why analysts use changes in prices of U.S. government bonds to compute changes in market interest rates. Because the U.S. government's tax revenues rarely cover expenditures nowadays, it relies heavily on debt financing. Moreover, even if the government did not have a budget deficit now, it would have to sell new debt to obtain the funds to repay old debt that matures. Most of the debt sold by the U.S. government is marketable, meaning that it can be resold by its original purchaser. Marketable issues include Treasury bills, Treasury notes, and Treasury bonds. The major non-marketable federal debt sold to individuals is U.S. Savings Bonds. Treasury bills have maturities up to one year and are generally issued in denominations of $10,000. They are sold in bearer form – possession of the T-bill itself constitutes proof of ownership. And they do not pay interest in the sense that the government writes a check to the owner. Instead, the U.S. Treasury sells notes at a discount to their redemption value.
The size of the discount determines the interest rate on the bill. For instance, a dealer might offer a bill with 120 days left until maturity at a yield of 7,48 per cent. To translate this quoted yield into the price, one must "undo" this discount computation. Multiply the 7,48 by 120/360 (the fraction of the 360-day year) to obtain 2,493, and subtract that from 100 to get 97,506. The dealer is offering to sell the bond for $97,507 per $100 of face value.
97
Treasury notes and Treasury bonds differ from Treasury bills in several ways. First, their maturities generally are greater than one year. Notes have maturities of one to seven years.
Bonds can be sold with any maturity, but their maturities at issue typically exceed five years. Second, bonds and notes specify periodic interest (coupon) payments as well as a principal repayment. Third, they are frequently registered, meaning that the government records the name and address of the current owner. When Treasury notes or bonds are initially sold, their coupon rate is typically set so that they will sell close to their face (par) value. Yields on bills, notes, or bonds of different maturities usually differ. Because investors can invest either in a long-term note or in a sequence of short-term bills, expectations about future short-term rates affect current long-term rates. Thus, if the market expects future short-term rates to exceed current short-term rates, then current long-term rates would exceed shortterm rates. If, for example, the current short-term rate for a one-year Tbill is 5 per cent, and the market expects the rate on a one-year T-bill sold one year from now to be 6 per cent, then the current two-year rate must exceed 5 per cent. If it did not, investors would expect to do better by buying one-year bills today and rolling them over into new one-year bills a year from now. Savings bonds are offered only to individuals.
Two types have been offered. Series E bonds are essentially discount bonds; they pay no interest until they are redeemed. Series H bonds pay interest semi-annually. Both types are registered. Unlike marketable government bonds, which have fixed interest rates, rates received by savings bond holders are frequently revised when market rates change. Corporate bonds promise specified payments at specified dates. In general, the interest received by the bondholder is taxed as ordinary income. An issue of corporate bonds is generally covered by a trust indenture, which promises a trustee (typically a bank or trust company) that it will comply with the indenture's provisions (or covenants). These include a promise of payment of principal and interest at stated dates, and other provisions such as limitations of the firm's right to sell pledged property, limitations on future financing activities, and limitations on dividend payments. Potential lenders forecast the likelihood of default on a bond and require higher promised interest rates for higher forecasted default rates.
98
One way that corporate borrowers can influence the forecasted default rate is to agree to restrictive provisions or covenants that limit the firm's future financing, dividend, and investment activities – making it more certain that cash will be available to pay interest and principal. With a lower anticipated probability of default, buyers are willing to offer higher prices for the bonds. Corporate officers must weigh the costs of the reduced flexibility from including the covenants against the benefits of lower interest rates.
Describing all the types of corporate bonds that have been issued would be difficult. Sometimes different names are employed to describe the same type of bond and, infrequently, the same name will be applied to two quite different bonds. Standard types include the following.
•Mortgage bonds are secured by the pledge of specific property. If default occurs, the bondholders are entitled to sell the pledged property to satisfy their claims. If the sale procedures are insufficient to cover their claims, they have an unsecured claim on the corporation's other assets.
•Debentures are unsecured general obligations of the issuing corporation. The indenture will regularly limit issuance of additional secured and unsecured debt.
•Collateral trust bonds are backed by other securities (typically held by a trustee). Such bonds are frequently issued by a parent corporation pledging securities owned by a subsidiary.
•Equipment obligations (or equipment trust certificates) are backed by specific pieces of equipment (for example, railroad rolling stock or aircraft).
•Subordinated debentures have a lower priority in bankruptcy than unsubordinated debentures; junior claims are generally paid only after senior claims have been satisfied.
•Convertible bonds give the owner the option either to be repaid in cash or to exchange the bonds for a specified number of shares in the corporation. Corporate bonds have differing degrees of risk. Bond rating agencies (for example, Moody's) provide an indication of the relative default risk of bonds with ratings that range from "A" (the best quality) to "C" (the lowest). Bonds rated "B" and above are typically referred to as "investment grade".
Below-investment-grade bonds are sometimes referred to as "junk bonds". Junk bonds can carry promised yields that are 3 to 6 per cent (300 to 600 basis points) higher than "A" bonds.
99
Historically, interest paid on bonds issued by state and local governments has been exempt from federal income taxes. Because investors are usually interested in returns net of tax, municipal bonds have therefore generally promised lower interest rates than other government bonds that have similar risk but that lack this attractive tax treatment. In 1991 the percentage difference between the yield on long-term U.S. government bonds and the yield on long-term municipals was about 15 per cent. Thus, if an individual's marginal tax rate is higher than 15 per cent, after-tax return would be higher from municipal than from taxable government bonds.
Municipal bonds are typically designated as either general obligation bonds or revenue bonds. General obligation bonds are backed by the "full faith and credit" (and thus the taxing authority) of the issuing entity. Revenue bonds are backed by a specifically designated revenue stream, such as the revenues from a designated project, authority, or agency, or by the proceeds from a specific tax. Frequently, such bonds are issued by agencies that plan to sell their services at prices that cover their expenses, including the promised payments on the debt. In such cases the bonds are only as good as the enterprise that backs it.
In 1983, for example, the Washington Public Power Supply System (nicknamed WHOOPS by Wall Street) defaulted on $2.25 billion on its number four and five nuclear power plants, leaving bondholders with much less than they had been promised. Finally, industrial development bonds are used to finance the purchase or construction of facilities to be leased to private firms. Municipalities have used such bonds to subsidize businesses choosing to locate in their area by, in effect, giving them the benefit of loans at tax-exempt rates.
Text 24: 29 Years of Windows Evolution
Microsoft’s Windows operating system was first introduced in 1985. Over 29 years later a lot has changed, but what things have stayed the same? Microsoft Windows has seen nine major versions since its first release in 1985.
Over 29 years later, Windows looks very different but somehow familiar with elements that have survived the test of time, increases in computing power and – most recently – a shift from the keyboard and mouse to the touchscreen. Here’s a brief look at the history of Windows, from its
100