Appeal No. 1997-3205
Application 08/389,545
modifying a constant value of a deterministic model with a probabilistic deviation. Appellants are
correct in stating that although Maguire teaches that deterministic calculations can be statistically or
probabilistically based (see column 4, lines 10 to 14), Maguire still does not teach or suggest the feature
recited in representative claim 1 of modifying a constant value of a deterministic model with a
probabilistic deviation by defining a distribution of degradation values surrounding an expected
degradation value at a particular time point to generate an index commensurate with an uncertainty at
each time point.
Therefore, we find that the feature recited in claims 1 to 10 on appeal, of generating an index
commensurate with tube array degradation over time by modifying constant deterministic degradation
values using a probabilistic model, is neither taught nor would have been suggested by the applied prior
art to Clark and Maguire.
Lastly, we are in agreement with appellants (Brief, pages 11 to 12 and 15) that Maguire fails to
teach or suggest the salient feature of representative claim 1 of defining a distribution of degradation
values surrounding an expected degradation value at a particular time point to generate an index
commensurate with an uncertainty at each time point, thereby providing an uncertainty index. We are
not persuaded that Maguire’s disclosed optimization analysis (see Maguire, column 15) relied upon by
the examiner (see Answer, page 10) is the same as appellant’s claimed uncertainty index. We
concluded that Maguire’s teachings of optimization of plant operations and performance would not
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