The Doha Declaration Ten Years on and Its Impact on Access to Medicines and the Right to Health

Access to medicines is a human right, enshrined in legally binding international human rights treaties, select regional agreements and numerous national constitutions. The realization of access to medicines, including antiretroviral treatment, as part of the human right to health depends heavily on the legal framework for the production and distribution of medicines, including intellectual property rights. The adoption of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO) changed dramatically the international landscape with regard to intellectual property, particularly in relation to access to medicines. Although one of the stated goals of the TRI PS Agreement was “to reduce tensions arising from intellectual property protection”, the possible conflict between such protection and essential public health objectives, particularly access to medicines, moved developing-country WTO Member States to request the Council for TRIPS to specifically consider the relationship between the TRI PS Agreement and public health in general, and access to medicines more specifically. After negotiations, in 2001 the 4th WTO Ministerial Conference adopted the Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health. This Discussion Paper briefly describes the content of the Doha Declaration and examines its implications for the realization of the right to health. The Paper discusses a number of repercussions of the Doha Declaration with regard to the international discourse on the right to health and access to medicines, and its implications within the WTO system and for national legislation. It presents some examples of use of the flexibilities confirmed by the Doha Declaration, and discusses the issue of compulsory licences with regard to patents relating to products for non-communicable diseases. Finally, a number of conclusions and recommendations are presented

Acoustic displacement triangle based on the individual element test

A three node, displacement based, acoustic element is developed. In order to avoid spurious rotational modes, a higher order stiffness is introduced. The higher order stiffness is developed from an incompatible strain field which computes element volume changes under nodal rotational displacements fields. The higher order strain satisfies the IET requirements, non affecting convergence. The higher order stiffness is modulated, element by element, with a factor. Thus, the displacement based formulation is capable of placing the spurious rotational modes over the range of physical compressional modes that can be accurately captured by the mesh

Case studies on the geological application of LANDSAT imagery in Brazil

The author has identified the following significant results. Sao Domingos Range, Pocos de Caldas, and Araguaia and Tocantins Rivers in Brazil were selected as test sites for LANDSAT imagery. The satellite images were analyzed using conventional photointerpretation techniques, and the results indicate the application of small scale image data in regional structural data analysis, geological mapping, and mineral exploration

Surface Waves and Forced Oscillations in QHE Planar Samples

Dispersion relations and polarizations for surface waves in infinite planar samples in the QHE regime are explicitly determined in the small wavevector limit in which the dielectric tensor can be considered as local. The wavelength and frequency regions of applicability of the results extends to the infrared region for typical experimental conditions. Then, standard samples with millimetric sizes seem to be able to support such excitations. Forced oscillations are also determined which should be generated in the 2DEG by external electromagnetic sources. They show an almost frequency independent wavevelength which decreases with the magnetic field. A qualitative model based in these solutions is also presented to describe a recently found new class of resonances appearing near the edge of a 2DEG in the QHE regime.Comment: latex file, 18 pages, 3 figures, spelling correcte

Coupled scalar fields Oscillons and Breathers in some Lorentz Violating Scenarios

In this work we discuss the impact of the breaking of the Lorentz symmetry on the usual oscillons, the so-called flat-top oscillons, and the breathers. Our analysis is performed by using a Lorentz violation scenario rigorously derived in the literature. We show that the Lorentz violation is responsible for the origin of a kind of deformation of the configuration, where the field configuration becomes oscillatory in a localized region near its maximum value. Furthermore, we show that the Lorentz breaking symmetry produces a displacement of the oscillon along the spatial direction, the same feature is present in the case of breathers. We also show that the effect of a Lorentz violation in the flat-top oscillon solution is responsible by the shrinking of the flat-top. Furthermore, we find analytically the outgoing radiation, this result indicates that the amplitude of the outgoing radiation is controlled by the Lorentz breaking parameter, in such away that this oscillon becomes more unstable than its symmetric counterpart, however, it still has a long living nature

On the study of oscillons in scalar field theories: A new approach

In this work we study configurations in one-dimensional scalar field theory, which are time-dependent, localized in space and extremely long-lived called oscillons. It is investigated how the action of changing the minimum value of the field configuration representing the oscillon affects its behavior. We find that one of the consequences of this procedure, is the appearance of a pair of oscillon-like structures presenting different amplitudes and frequencies of oscillation. We also compare our analytical results to numerical ones, showing excellent agreement