Intellectual property disclosure in standards development

Firms often collaborate to produce inter-operability standards so that independently designed products can work together. When this process takes place in a Standard Setting Organization (SSO), participants are typically required to disclose any intellectual property rights (IP) that would be infringed by a proposed standard, and asked for a commitment to license their essential IP on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. This paper describes the IP disclosure process, and provides an overview of a publicly available IP disclosure dataset that the authors have compiled using the archives of thirteen major SSOs. We use these new data to illustrate several major trends in standards development, and to show how "declared essential" patents differ from a random sample of patents of the same vintage covering similar technology

Mental Health of those who care: how can epidemiology help address the burden of depression?

Depression is one of the most prevalent mental disorders with a high burden of disease, affecting one in fifteen adults (6%). Moreover, because the COVID-19 lockdown has highly impacted on mental health, in each strata of the population (from the most to the least vulnerable, also including health professionals), projections estimate that depression will become the leading cause of disease burden in 2030. COVID-19 increased the emotional burden on health professionals working at the forefront, including the one involved in the public health field. Furthermore, although the etiology of depression is still not well known, multiple risk factors have been associated with it. How do these several factors interact and have an impact on depression? How has the COVID-19 pandemic played a role on health professionals mental health or even on informal caregivers, especially considering that during the pandemic many healthcare activities have been postponed, further burdening them? The workshop Aims to reply to these still open questions by bringing together experts in public health, epidemiology, statistics, and quantitative social sciences with topic knowledge on depression. The workshop will be structured as follows: we will first set the scene with an introductory presentation. We will then deepen the theme by focusing on two different topics, each presented by two speakers. This will allow us to compare different perspectives and stimulate the final debate. Audience participation will be encouraged with live polls, quizzes or word clouds. The introductory presentation will move from a quick overview of the past, present and future of Public Mental Health. It will then focus on the stigma of psychiatric pathology and the impact of the pandemic on it. Finally, it will approach the theme of mental health among health professionals, residents and students taking cues from the SMS-ME project (Sicilian Medical Student MEntal Health). In the first contribution, we will present data from the Italian and European surveys among Public Health Residents deepening the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on their mental health. These two surveys were conducted respectively by the working groups on “Public Mental Health” from the medical residents Assembly of the Italian Society of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine and from the European Network of Medical Residents in Public Health (EuroNet MRPH). The second contribution aims at discussing the most recent evidence on how several lifestyle and socio-economic factors are associated with prevalent and incident depressive symptoms among the general population. A specific focus on the role of social support and informal caregiving will be discussed. Data presented will come from The Maastricht Study, a large population-based cohort study, and from evidence of the literature. Identifying risk factors of depression could guide preventive strategies with the final aim of reducing its high morbidity. We hope that the final debate will lead to a fruitful discussion on the data presented, also aimed at understanding how to inform policy makers about health and economic consequences of the high burden of depression

Membrane-Based Scanning Force Microscopy

We report the development of a scanning force microscope based on an ultrasensitive silicon nitride membrane optomechanical transducer. Our development is made possible by inverting the standard microscope geometry - in our instrument, the substrate is vibrating and the scanning tip is at rest. We present topography images of samples placed on the membrane surface. Our measurements demonstrate that the membrane retains an excellent force sensitivity when loaded with samples and in the presence of a scanning tip. We discuss the prospects and limitations of our instrument as a quantum-limited force sensor and imaging tool.</p

The management of intra-abdominal infections from a global perspective : 2017 WSES guidelines for management of intra-abdominal infections

Intra-abdominal infections (IAIs) are common surgical emergencies and have been reported as major contributors to non-trauma deaths in the emergency departments worldwide. The cornerstones of effective treatment of IAIs are early recognition, adequate source control, and appropriate antimicrobial therapy. Prompt resuscitation of patients with ongoing sepsis is of utmost important. In hospitals worldwide, non-acceptance of, or lack of access to, accessible evidence-based practices and guidelines result in overall poorer outcome of patients suffering IAIs. The aim of this paper is to promote global standards of care in IAIs and update the 2013 WSES guidelines for management of intra-abdominal infections.Peer reviewe

The management of acute venous thromboembolism in clinical practice. Results from the European PREFER in VTE Registry

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in Europe. Data from real-world registries are necessary, as clinical trials do not represent the full spectrum of VTE patients seen in clinical practice. We aimed to document the epidemiology, management and outcomes of VTE using data from a large, observational database. PREFER in VTE was an international, non-interventional disease registry conducted between January 2013 and July 2015 in primary and secondary care across seven European countries. Consecutive patients with acute VTE were documented and followed up over 12 months. PREFER in VTE included 3,455 patients with a mean age of 60.8 ± 17.0 years. Overall, 53.0 % were male. The majority of patients were assessed in the hospital setting as inpatients or outpatients (78.5 %). The diagnosis was deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) in 59.5 % and pulmonary embolism (PE) in 40.5 %. The most common comorbidities were the various types of cardiovascular disease (excluding hypertension; 45.5 %), hypertension (42.3 %) and dyslipidaemia (21.1 %). Following the index VTE, a large proportion of patients received initial therapy with heparin (73.2 %), almost half received a vitamin K antagonist (48.7 %) and nearly a quarter received a DOAC (24.5 %). Almost a quarter of all presentations were for recurrent VTE, with &gt;80 % of previous episodes having occurred more than 12 months prior to baseline. In conclusion, PREFER in VTE has provided contemporary insights into VTE patients and their real-world management, including their baseline characteristics, risk factors, disease history, symptoms and signs, initial therapy and outcomes

Standardizing intellectual property disclosure data

Disclosure of essential patents at standard-setting organizations provides a rich source of information that can be used for various research questions related to standards and innovation. Yet this data also has some limitations and its compilation and preparation create challenges. This paper summarizes a number of recent studies using this type of data and discusses recent efforts to create an open database

Showcase: a database for standards and patents

Disclosure of essential patents at standard-setting organizations provides a rich source of information that can be used for various research questions related to standards and innovation. Yet this data also has some limitations and its compilation and preparation create challenges. This paper summarizes a number of recent studies using this type of data and discusses recent efforts to create an open database