NEW TASKS FOR PATENT ADMINISTRATION

Gao Lulin,Director General of theChinese Patent Office,recentlyannounced a 10-point requirementfor patent work over the next two years.Thedetails are as follows: 1. Currently,the emphasis should beplaced to the preparation of the patent workplans for the Ninth Five-Year Plan Period(1996-2000) and targets set by 2010 for thepatent work in various localities anddepartments. Various localities and departmentsshould set their own objectives,guidelines,major tasks,policies and measures in patentwork for the next 15 years,especially in theNinth Five-Year Plan Period,based on thesummary of the work experience they haveaccumulated since the implementation

Research on cognitive load evaluation with subjective method in manual assembly

Subjective scales have different kinds of applicability in diverse fields.This study intends to implement a quantitative approach to determine the applicability of subjective scales in manual as-sembly work and evaluate the cognitive load of assembly workers.A multi-scale research paradigm based on subjective evaluation method is proposed.Three typical task stages are extracted from the process of assembly work.The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index(NASA-TLX)scale,PAAS scale and Workload Profile Index Ratings(WP)scale are selected for the design of 3×3 multi-factor mixed experiment.The power spectrum density(PSD)characteris-tics of electroencephalogram(EEG)are utilized to identify the difficulty levels of the three task sta-ges.The relevant indicators of scale applicability are assessed.The results show that in terms of sensitivity,NASA-TLX scale reaches the highest sensitivity(F=999.137,P=0<0.05).In terms of validity,NASA-TLX scale possesses the best concurrent validity(P=0.0255<0.05).In terms of diagnosticity,NASA-TLX scale based on 6 dimensions takes on the best diagnostic performance.In terms of subject acceptability,WP scale performs the worst.According to the analytic hierarchy process(AHP)model,the applicability scores of NASA-TLX scale,PAAS scale and WP scale are determined as 3,2.55 and 1.6714,respectively.Therefore,NASA-TLX scale is regarded as the most suitable subjective evaluation questionnaire for assembly workers,which is also an effective quantitative evaluation method for the cognitive load of assembly workers.