Old Remedies in the Biotechnology Age: Moore v. Regents

The California Supreme Court, by excluding a potential remedy, has eliminated many concerns generated by a lower court decision resolving rights to the cell line derived from John Moore\u27s spleen. Yet, the Supreme Court gave little attention to remedies that remain. The authors argue that a constructive trust, a remedy of considerable vintage and great flexibility, could be applied to achieve a just result in such circumstances without affecting the biotechnology world at large

Promulgating Requirements for Admission to Prosecute Patent Applications

Among federal agencies, the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office is unique in its ability to require attorneys to submit to special requirements, such as passing a six hour examination, before being permitted to practice before it in patent cases. Indeed, the Supreme Court has held that an individual so admitted to practice before the PTO need not comply with state requirements otherwise applicable to those practicing law. The first part of this article discusses how this requirement came to be. It then discusses how the PTO determines whether an individual is fit to sit for the patent examination, focusing particularly on provisions contained in a bulletin mailed by its Office of Enrollment and Discipline (OED) to all would-be patent practitioners. It also briefly discusses rule-making requirements (and exceptions) generally applicable to federal agencies and examines the nature of the aforesaid provisions intended to affect admission to prosecute patent applications. This article concludes that the detailed provisions sent to applicants, fitting none of the rule-making exceptions, should be promulgated in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act. It also concludes that, in the meantime, those provisions should not be regarded as binding on applicants to practice before the PTO in patent cases. Finally, the article contains an appendix that should be of particular interest to persons involved with software patents

Indira Freitas Johnson Interview

Bio: Indira Freitas Johnson was born in Mumbai, India. She has received undergraduate degrees from Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art and the University of Bombay. She also received a masters degree in fine arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1967. Her father was an artist and her mother was a social activist, both of whom she was influenced by. She strongly believes that art and activism are a powerful combination for social change. Indira founded the Shanti Foundation for Peace in 1993 in response to the rise of ethnic violence. This foundation helps people understand that their individual action can go a long way to build lasting peace by using the process of art. Her actions and a lot of her work focus on spiritual growth and peace

Nutrition and Mental Health

This research study was focused on the barriers mental health clients experience to consuming a plant-based diet. The research participants included seven clients at an outpatient mental health clinic consisting of different diagnoses, races, and ages. A multi-method approach was utilized with the use of a nutritional survey followed by a semi-structured interview. Six of the seven participants consume a poor diet per the nutritional assessment. When asked the barrier(s) to consuming a healthy diet, five participants expressed lack of interest and another participant reported lack of resources. Further research is recommended in this area

Implementing Culturally Responsive Teaching in the Elementary Classroom

This is a qualitative study investigating the procedure of preparing undergraduate teacher candidates for culturally responsive teaching in the elementary classroom. The hypothesis for this study is that intentional experiences and collaborative discussion activities will increase students’ knowledge of implementation of culturally responsive teaching in the classroom. “Culturally responsive teachers not only know their students well, they use what they know about their students to give them access to learning” (Lucas and Villegas). This project is significant because classrooms in the United States are rapidly growing in diversity. The twenty-first century teacher needs to be fully equipped in how to respond to culture in the classroom. According to Lucas and Villegas, teachers must move beyond the superficial notion of diversity that is prevalent classrooms today and gain a fresh vision of teaching and learning in a diverse setting to intentionally guide their curriculum (Lucas and Villegas, 2002). Undergraduate students will participate in a four-week field experience in a Midwestern school district working with kindergarten through second grade students. Teacher candidates will set three responsive teaching goals, complete a survey, and reflect on the goals and field experience. They will also complete a follow-up survey administered by researchers. For this study the population will include thirty-two undergraduate students in their first phase of professional education. Ages range from nineteen to thirty-five. Researchers predict that students will demonstrate a higher understanding of culturally responsive teaching due to intentional instruction and experiences through the college courses and field experience

The Effects of Postsecondary Correctional Education

Presents findings on the effect of prison-based postsecondary education on offenders during incarceration and on post-release employment and recidivism. Explores offenders' and stakeholders' views on the value and challenges of such programs

Herding in Financial Behaviour

Experimental analyses have identified significant tendencies for individuals to follow herd decisions, a finding which has been explained using Bayesian principles. This paper outlines the results from a herding task designed to extend these analyses using evidence from a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. Empirically, we estimate logistic functions using panel estimation techniques to quantify the impact of herd decisions on individuals' financial decisions. We confirm that there are statistically significant propensities to herd and that social information about others' decisions has an impact on individuals' decisions. We extend these findings by identifying associations between herding propensities and individual characteristics including gender, age and various personality traits. In addition fMRI evidence shows that individual differences correlate strongly with activations in the amygdala ﾖ an area of the brain commonly associated with social decision-making. Individual differences also correlate strongly with amygdala activations during herding decisions. These findings are used to construct a two stage least squares model of financial herding which confirms that individual differences and neural responses play a role in modulating the propensity to herd

Examining Variation in Compliance to a New School Counselor Policy by School and School Counseling Program Variables

To address a gap in the research, we conducted a policy evaluation to investigate if a recent state policy change had met its intended goals to decrease school counselor ratios and increase their time with students. Participants included 143 PK-12 public school counselors in one state in the southeastern region of the United States. Results of this statewide study revealed; (a) a decline in ratios pursuant to policy adoption; (b) less non-counseling duties when following the policy; and (c) elementary level school counselors were more likely to meet policy guidelines as compared to secondary school counselors. School counselors who reported that they were not able to implement the policy attributed this to a lack of support. This exploratory study indicates that statewide policy can impact change at the school level. Implications and suggestions for future research are included

Conceptualising and measuring the housing affordability problem

“Copyright 1970 AHURI Limited. Published version of the paper reproduced here with permission from the publisher.” This is the publisher's copryight version of this article, the original can be found at: http://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/nrv-research-papers/nrv3-1Background Paper 1 has two aims. The first is to review relevant literature on affordability issues and discuss some of the main methods of measuring housing affordability. The second is to inform discussion on how housing affordability is to be measured for the overall CRV3 research program

Partial Adaptation of Obtained and Observed Value Signals Preserves Information about Gains and Losses.

UNLABELLED: Given that the range of rewarding and punishing outcomes of actions is large but neural coding capacity is limited, efficient processing of outcomes by the brain is necessary. One mechanism to increase efficiency is to rescale neural output to the range of outcomes expected in the current context, and process only experienced deviations from this expectation. However, this mechanism comes at the cost of not being able to discriminate between unexpectedly low losses when times are bad versus unexpectedly high gains when times are good. Thus, too much adaptation would result in disregarding information about the nature and absolute magnitude of outcomes, preventing learning about the longer-term value structure of the environment. Here we investigate the degree of adaptation in outcome coding brain regions in humans, for directly experienced outcomes and observed outcomes. We scanned participants while they performed a social learning task in gain and loss blocks. Multivariate pattern analysis showed two distinct networks of brain regions adapt to the most likely outcomes within a block. Frontostriatal areas adapted to directly experienced outcomes, whereas lateral frontal and temporoparietal regions adapted to observed social outcomes. Critically, in both cases, adaptation was incomplete and information about whether the outcomes arose in a gain block or a loss block was retained. Univariate analysis confirmed incomplete adaptive coding in these regions but also detected nonadapting outcome signals. Thus, although neural areas rescale their responses to outcomes for efficient coding, they adapt incompletely and keep track of the longer-term incentives available in the environment. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Optimal value-based choice requires that the brain precisely and efficiently represents positive and negative outcomes. One way to increase efficiency is to adapt responding to the most likely outcomes in a given context. However, too strong adaptation would result in loss of precise representation (e.g., when the avoidance of a loss in a loss-context is coded the same as receipt of a gain in a gain-context). We investigated an intermediate form of adaptation that is efficient while maintaining information about received gains and avoided losses. We found that frontostriatal areas adapted to directly experienced outcomes, whereas lateral frontal and temporoparietal regions adapted to observed social outcomes. Importantly, adaptation was intermediate, in line with influential models of reference dependence in behavioral economics.This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust, Leverhulme Trust and the Swiss National Science Foundation (PP00P1-128574 and CRSTT3-141965).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the Society for Neuroscience via https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0487-16.201