See No Evil: How the Supreme Court’s Decision in Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A. Further Muddles the Intent Element of Induced Infringement

The Supreme Court in Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A. clarified the requisite intent for induced patent infringement when it applied the concept of willful blindness. This Article argues that the Court’s decision was misguided and complicates an already confused doctrine. The Article first explores inducement jurisprudence up to and including the Global-Tech decision, and then reviews the doctrine of willful blindness and its application in the criminal context. The Author then argues that using willful blindness in the patent context creates practical and theoretical difficulties that only deepen uncertainty for innovators who seek to avoid infringement liability

The mechanism and site of action of clonidine in the rat

The inactin anaesthetized rat shews cardiovascular reflex responses. Heat rate is under sympathetic but not vagal control.Clonidine reduces the heart rate and blood pressure in the inactin anaesthetized rat. The reduction in heart rate involves reducing sympathetic cradiac drive. The fall in blood pressure includes a reduction in peripheral resistance.Using a newly developed "delayed" hindlimb perfusion the reduction in peripheral resistance was seen to be neurally mediated. A peripheral vasodilator action was not seen with clonidine.Clonidine was administered by four different routes which were expected to provide access to selected areas in the brain. Intravenous, intracarotid artery, intraventricular and intravertebral artery. Administration into the ventricular system of the brain was slighty more potent in reducing arterial pressure than intravenous injection. Intracarotid and intravenous were equipotent. Intravertbral was by far the most effective, requiring 5% of the intravenous dose to cause an equivalent cardiovascular response.Autoradiography with H-clonidine was used to locate the injected clonidine. The new CEA Verken tritium sensitive film was used and proved able to detect very low levels of tritium. Each route of administration resulted in a different pattern of distribution.Clonidine administered intravenously distributed evenly throughout the CN3.Intacarotid administration selectively reached rostral areas. Intraventricular administration had the spread limited to periventicular areas.Intravertebral clonidine reached the medulla, pons, areas of the cerebellum and upper areas of the spinal cord.Comparison with the different hypotensive affects led to the conclusion that the site of action was within the medulla but not in the periventricular areas

Book Review

Acute cholesterol depletion is generally associated with decreased or abolished T cell signalling but it can also cause T cell activation. This anomaly has been addressed in Jurkat T cells using progressive cholesterol depletion with methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (MBCD). At depletion levels higher than 50% there is substantial cell death, which explains reports of signalling inhibition. At 10–20% depletion levels, tyrosine phosphorylation is increased, ERK is activated and there is a small increase in cytoplasmic Ca2+. Peripheral actin polymerisation is also triggered by limited cholesterol depletion. Strikingly, the lipid raft marker GM1 aggregates upon cholesterol depletion and these aggregated domains concentrate the signalling proteins Lck and LAT, whereas the opposite is true for the non lipid raft marker the transferrin receptor. Using PP2, an inhibitor of Src family kinase activation, it is demonstrated that the lipid raft aggregation occurs independently of and thus upstream of the signalling response. Upon cholesterol depletion there is an increase in overall plasma membrane order, indicative of more ordered domains forming at the expense of disordered domains. That cholesterol depletion and not unspecific effects of MBCD was behind the reported results was confirmed by performing all experiments with MBCD–cholesterol, when no net cholesterol extraction took place. We conclude that non-lethal cholesterol depletion causes the aggregation of lipid rafts which then induces T cell signalling

Getting the steak without the sizzle: Is MR enterography as good as CT enterography?

No abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69192/1/21101_ftp.pd

The Opportunistic President: How US Presidents Determine Their Legislative Programs

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112296/1/lsq12080.pd

Can improving teachers’ knowledge of mathematics lead to gains in learners’ attainment in mathematics?

It is wellknown that the majority of South African learners achieve extremely poorly in mathematics. Many claim that one of the causes of this poor attainment is teachers’ weak knowledge of mathematics, and propose that improving teachers’ mathematical knowledge would improve learner attainment. However, the evidence-base for this proposed solution is currently relatively weak. We report on a quasi-experimental study examining the learning gains of Grade 10 learners from five secondary schools in the Johannesburg area whose teachers participated in a year-long professional development course aimed at improving the teachers’ knowledge of mathematics for teaching. Statistical analyses of pre- and post-test results show that the intervention group of learners (N = 586) taught by teachers who had participated in the professional development (N = 14) outperformed a matched control group of learners (N = 217) taught by teachers in the same schools (N = 7). An effect size of =0.17 for the intervention group is equivalent to two months’ additional progress. While the learning gains are small, they are statistically significant. These findings provide empirical support for claims that attending to teachers’ mathematical knowledge can impact learners’ attainment. Suggestions are made regarding the form and substance of such professional development

Birefringence and Dichroism of the QED Vacuum

We use an analytic form for the Heisenberg-Euler Lagrangian to calculate the birefringent and dichroic properties of the vacuum for arbitrarily strong wrenchless fields. PACS : 12.20.Ds, 42.25.Lc 97.60.Jd, 98.70.RzComment: 8 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Journal of Physics

College adjustment in University of Michigan students with Crohn's and colitis

Background: Adjustment to college is critical for academic success. Poor college adjustment correlates with poor academic performance, low graduation rates, and poor success later in life. Limited data are available on the effects of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) on college adjustment. We hypothesize that disease activity negatively impacts on QOL, and adversely affects college adjustment. Methods: Undergraduate students (6 Crohn's disease [CD], 12 ulcerative colitis [UC], 19 healthy controls) completed a standardized college adjustment survey (SACQ) and QOL instrument (SF-12). Where appropriate, disease specific activity and QOL indices were obtained (HBI, SCCAI, SIBDQ). Results: There was an inverse correlation between disease activity and college adjustment in CD and UC (R = −0.6554, p = 0.0032). IBD students had lower physical QOL (SF-12) than controls (p = 0.0009). Emotional domain of college adjustment correlated best with SIBDQ (R = 0.8228, p < 0.0001), and correlated better in CD (R = 0.8619) than UC (R = 0.7946). Mental QOL (SF-12) was worse in CD than UC (p = 0.0211), but neither differed from controls (p = 0.4, p = 0.6). Conclusions: Students with active Crohn's and colitis adjust less well to college life. Physical and emotional factors likely contribute. More aggressive medical therapy and better emotional support before and during college may result in happier and healthier college students, leading to higher graduation rates and future success. Interventions resulting in better disease control and support systems may improve college performance and provide long-term benefits to young adults with IBD. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2008)Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/60909/1/20484_ftp.pd