Protecting Intellectual Capital in the New Century: Are Universities Prepared?

In recent years, intellectual property has become increasingly important to academic institutions throughout the United States. As universities rely more heavily on trademarks and patents for additional revenue, questions arise as to whether these institutions are sufficiently protected by their current intellectual property policies. This iBrief explores the policies promulgated by a variety of academic institutions and assesses whether these universities are adequately protected by their policies

Orderable groups, elementary theory, and the Kaplansky conjecture

We show that each of the classes of left-orderable groups and orderable groups is a quasivariety with undecidable theory. In the case of orderable groups, we find an explicit set of universal axioms. We then consider the relationship with the Kaplansky group rings conjecture and show that K, the class of groups which satisfy the conjecture, is the model class of a set of universal sentences in the language of group theory. We also give a characterization of when two groups in K or more generally two torsion-free groups are universally equivalent

Reflections on Discriminating Groups

Here we continue the study of discriminating groups as introduced by Baumslag, Myasnikov and Remeslennikov in [7]. First we give examples of finitely generated groups which are discriminating but not trivially discriminating, in the sense that they do not embed their direct squares, and then we show how to generalize these examples. In the opposite direction we show that if F is a non-abelian free group and R is a normal subgroup of F such that F/R is torsion-free, then F/R\u27 is non-discriminating

Groups Whose Universal Theory Is Axiomatizable by Quasi-Identities

Discriminating groups were introduced in [3] with an eye toward applications to the universal theory of various groups. In [6] it was shown that if G is any discriminating group, then the universal theory of G coincides with that of its direct square G x G. In this paper we explore groups G whose universal theory coincides with that of their direct square. These are called square-like groups. We show that the class of square-like groups is first-order axiomatizable and contains the class of discriminating groups as a proper subclass. Further we show that the class of discriminating groups is not first-order axiomatizable

Discriminating groups: a comprehensive overview

Discriminating groups were introduced by G.Baumslag, A.Myasnikov and V.Remeslennikov as an outgrowth of their theory of algebraic geometry over groups. However they have taken on a life of their own and have been an object of a considerable amount of study. In this paper we survey the large array results concerning the class of discriminating groups that have been developed over the past decade

Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigen 85B and ESAT-6 expressed as a recombinant fusion protein in Mycobacterium smegmatis elicits cell-mediated immune response in a murine vaccination model

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Molecular Immunology. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2012 Elsevier B.V.In this study, we investigated the potential molecular and immunological differences of a recombinant fusion protein (Hybrid-1), comprising of the immunodominant antigens Ag85B and ESAT-6 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, derived from two different expression systems, namely Mycobacterium smegmatis and Escherichia coli. The fusion protein was successfully expressed and purified from both bacterial hosts and analyzed for any host-dependent post-translational modifications that might affect the immunogenicity of the protein. We investigated the immunogenicity of Hybrid-1 expressed in the two host species in a murine vaccination model, together with a reference standard Hybrid-1 (expressed in E. coli) from the Statens Serum Institut. No evidence of any post-translation modification was found in the M. smegmatis-derived Hybrid-1 fusion protein, nor were there any significant differences in the T-cell responses obtained to the three antigens analyzed. In conclusion, the Hybrid-1 fusion protein was successfully expressed in a homologous expression system using M. smegmatis and this system is worth considering as a primary source for vaccination trials, as it provided protein of excellent yield, stability and free from lipopolysaccharide.European TB-VAC consortium and Brunel University

A Functional Naturalism

I provide two arguments against value-free naturalism. Both are based on considerations concerning biological teleology. Value-free naturalism is the thesis that both (1) everything is, at least in principle, under the purview of the sciences and (2) all scientific facts are purely non-evaluative. First, I advance a counterexample to any analysis on which natural selection is necessary to biological teleology. This should concern the value-free naturalist, since most value-free analyses of biological teleology appeal to natural selection. My counterexample is unique in that it is likely to actually occur. It concerns the creation of synthetic life. Recent developments in synthetic biology suggest scientists will eventually be able to develop synthetic life. Such life, however, would not have any of its traits naturally selected for. Second, I develop a simple argument that biological teleology is a scientific but value-laden notion. Consequently, value-free naturalism is false. I end with some concluding remarks on the implications for naturalism, the thesis that (1). Naturalism may be salvaged only if we reject (2). (2) is a dogma that unnecessarily constrains our conception of the sciences. Only a naturalism that recognizes value-laden notions as scientifically respectable can be true. Such a naturalism is a functional naturalism