What’s So Special About Patent Law?

The widespread belief that patent law is special has shaped the development of patent law into one of the most specialized areas of the law today. The belief in patent law’s exceptionalism manifests itself as two related presumptions with respect to the judiciary: first, that generalist judges who do not have patent law expertise cannot effectively decide patent cases, and second, that judges can develop necessary expertise through repeated experience with patent cases. Congress showed that it acquiesced to both views when it created the Federal Circuit and the Patent Pilot Program. In recent years, however, the Supreme Court has reminded us that the judiciary’s difficulty with patent cases is not the law, but is instead that patent cases often involve difficult subject matter, which sometimes requires technical or scientific expertise. While Congress’s early attempts to deal with these difficulties focused on courts with legal―rather than technical―expertise, the Supreme Court’s recent pronouncements suggest that they should have been doing the reverse. Moreover, to the extent that it is the underlying technology that makes patent cases difficult, that commends the use of an administrative, rather than a judicial, solution. One potentially viable answer to the judiciary’s problem with patent law has already been partly implemented in the form of the recently created Patent Trial and Appeal Board. This Article proposes expansion of that solution by making that new entity the exclusive forum for deciding issues of patent validity

How and why do South Asians attend GUM clinics? Evidence from contrasting GUM clinics across England

Background: Improving access to sexual healthcare is a priority in the UK, especially for ethnic minorities. Though South Asians in the UK report low levels of sexual ill health, few data exist regarding their use of genitourinary medicine (GUM) services. Objectives: To describe reasons for attendance at GUM clinics among individuals of South Asian origin relative to patients of other ethnicities. Methods: 4600 new attendees (5% South Asian; n=226) at seven sociodemographically and geographically contrasting GUM clinics across England completed a questionnaire between October 2004 and March 2005, which were linked to routine clinical data. Results: South Asians were more likely than other groups to be signposted to the GUM clinic by another health service-for example, in women 14% versus 8% respectively (p=0.005) reported doing so from a family planning clinic. These women also reported that they would be less likely to go to the clinic if their symptoms resolved spontaneously compared with other women (51% vs 31%, p=0.024). However, relative to other clinic attendees, no differences in the proportions of South Asians who had acute STI(s) diagnosed at clinic were noted. Furthermore, South Asian men were more likely to report as their reason for attendance that they wanted an HIV test (23.4% vs 14.8%, p=0.005). Conclusion: Despite having similar STI care needs to attendees from other ethnic groups, South Asians, especially women, may be reluctant to seek care from GUM clinics, especially if their symptoms resolve. Sexual health services need to develop locally-delivered and culturally-appropriate initiatives to improve care pathways

Predictors of attendance at an obesity clinic and subsequent weight change

BACKGROUND: There is conflicting evidence regarding characteristics of patients most likely to have poor outcomes after referral to a multidisciplinary weight loss clinic. The aim of this study was to identify patient characteristics associated with poor attendance and poor weight outcomes at a weight management clinic based in an Australian tertiary hospital. METHODS: Patient characteristics including age, sex, referral source, postcode of residence, weight, body mass index (BMI) and the presence of specific comorbidities were recorded. Outcome measures included questionnaire return following referral (a requirement prior to a first appointment being scheduled), percentage of appointments attended and rate of weight change (kg/month). Continuous variables were expressed as mean ± standard deviation and compared using a t-test. Categorical data were presented as proportions and a chi-squared test was used to test significance. Statistical significance was set as p < 0.05. RESULTS: Of 502 patients referred to the Comprehensive Metabolic Care Centre (CMCC), 231 (46%) did not return their questionnaire. Patients referred by their GP, compared to those with only internal hospital referrals, were more likely to return their questionnaire (86.0% cf. 77.9%; p = 0.02) as were those who had their BMI recorded in their referral letter (58% cf 45% p = 0.011). 28.1% of patients attended half or less of their scheduled appointments at the CMCC but none of the parameters analysed was associated with attendance. Weight loss was associated with residence in a rural location (p = 0.016) and hypercholesterolaemia (p = 0.03) and weight gain was associated with obstructive sleep apnoea (p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: A large proportion of the patients referred to a weight management clinic never had an appointment scheduled. Clinicians should not anticipate greater compliance in one patient demographic than another; all groups need focus, particularly at the referral stage, and likely poor compliance must be anticipated and better managed

SOME ASPECTS OF ENERGY SAVING OF BURDEN MATERIAL IN THE BLAST FURNACE

To determine the possibility of self-stabilization effect for burden surface texture and gas flow in operating blast furnace under the proper conditions was experimentally proved for the first time, as well as the reasons of the effect disruption

How much do delayed health care seeking, delayed care provision and diversion from primary care contribute to the transmission of STIs

Objectives: To explore the changing pattern of condom use from 1990 to 2000; to identify sociodemographic and behavioural factors associated with condom use; and reasons for condom use in 2000. Methods: Large probability sample surveys administered among those resident in Britain aged 16–44 (n = 13 765 in 1990, n = 11 161 in 2000). Face to face interviews with self completion components collected sociodemographic, behavioural, and attitudinal data. Results: Condom use in the past year among sexually active 16–24 year old men increased from 61.0% in 1990 to 82.1% in 2000 (p<0.0001), and from 42.0% to 63.2% (p<0.0001) among women of the same age, with smaller increases among older age groups. Among individuals reporting at least two partners in the previous 4 week period, approximately two thirds reported inconsistent or no condom use (63.1% (95% CI 55.9% to 69.8%) of the men and 68.5% (95% CI 57.6% to 77.7%) of the women). Conclusions: Rates of condom use increased substantially between 1990 and 2000, particularly among young people. However, inconsistent condom use by individuals with high rates of partner acquisition may contribute significantly to the recent resurgence in STIs. This group is an important target for intensive and specific sexual health interventions

Neural differentiation potential of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells: misleading marker gene expression

Background: In contrast to pluripotent embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells have been considered to be multipotent, being somewhat more restricted in their differentiation capacity and only giving rise to cell types related to their tissue of origin. Several studies, however, have reported that bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are capable of transdifferentiating to neural cell types, effectively crossing normal lineage restriction boundaries. Such reports have been based on the detection of neural-related proteins by the differentiated MSCs. In order to assess the potential of human adult MSCs to undergo true differentiation to a neural lineage and to determine the degree of homogeneity between donor samples, we have used RT-PCR and immunocytochemistry to investigate the basal expression of a range of neural related mRNAs and proteins in populations of non-differentiated MSCs obtained from 4 donors. Results: The expression analysis revealed that several of the commonly used marker genes from other studies like nestin, Enolase2 and microtubule associated protein 1b (MAP1b) are already expressed by undifferentiated human MSCs. Furthermore, mRNA for some of the neural-related transcription factors, e.g. Engrailed-1 and Nurr1 were also strongly expressed. However, several other neural-related mRNAs (e.g. DRD2, enolase2, NFL and MBP) could be identified, but not in all donor samples. Similarly, synaptic vesicle-related mRNA, STX1A could only be detected in 2 of the 4 undifferentiated donor hMSC samples. More significantly, each donor sample revealed a unique expression pattern, demonstrating a significant variation of marker expression. Conclusion: The present study highlights the existence of an inter-donor variability of expression of neuralrelated markers in human MSC samples that has not previously been described. This donor-related heterogeneity might influence the reproducibility of transdifferentiation protocols as well as contributing to the ongoing controversy about differentiation capacities of MSCs. Therefore, further studies need to consider the differences between donor samples prior to any treatment as well as the possibility of harvesting donor cells that may be inappropriate for transplantation strategies

Identification of regeneration-associated genes after central and peripheral nerve injury in the adult rat

BACKGROUND: It is well known that neurons of the peripheral nervous system have the capacity to regenerate a severed axon leading to functional recovery, whereas neurons of the central nervous system do not regenerate successfully after injury. The underlying molecular programs initiated by axotomized peripheral and central nervous system neurons are not yet fully understood. RESULTS: To gain insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying the process of regeneration in the nervous system, differential display polymerase chain reaction has been used to identify differentially expressed genes following axotomy of peripheral and central nerve fibers. For this purpose, axotomy induced changes of regenerating facial nucleus neurons, and non-regenerating red nucleus and Clarke's nucleus neurons have been analyzed in an intra-animal side-to-side comparison. One hundred and thirty five gene fragments have been isolated, of which 69 correspond to known genes encoding for a number of different functional classes of proteins such as transcription factors, signaling molecules, homeobox-genes, receptors and proteins involved in metabolism. Sixty gene fragments correspond to genomic mouse sequences without known function. In situ-hybridization has been used to confirm differential expression and to analyze the cellular localization of these gene fragments. Twenty one genes (~15%) have been demonstrated to be differentially expressed. CONCLUSIONS: The detailed analysis of differentially expressed genes in different lesion paradigms provides new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the process of regeneration and may lead to the identification of genes which play key roles in functional repair of central nervous tissues