No one ‘owns’ the genome: The United States Supreme Court rules that human DNA cannot be patented

Modern biotechnological innovation has been fertile ground for profound and critical debate – and policy consideration – regarding its associated legal, social, ethical and moral issues. Patent laws exist to encourage the progress of science, innovation and discovery, but battle to provide a clear and stable regulatory framework. In a decision that looks set to shape the future, the United States Supreme Court recently ruled that isolated human DNA cannot be patented. It is argued that this decision will have a potentially serious negative impact on future biotechnological innovation and discovery, and that the more expansive European approach to ‘gene patenting’ is sounder and enables progres

Aspekte van statutêre minderheidsbeskerming in die Suid-Afrikaanse maatskappyereg

Text in AfrikaansDaar is 'n toenemende bewuswording van die noodsaaklikheid van effektiewe beskerming vir minderhede. Die rede vir hierdie toenemende erkenning aan die behoefte aan minderheidsbeskerming is waarskynlik toe te skryf aan die beset dat dit nie alleen die minderheidsaandeelhouers is wat skade ly in geval van benadelende optrede nie, maar ook die ekonomie. Maatskappye word ingevolge die beginsel van meerderheidsbewind bestuur, met die gevolg dat die minderheid onderworpe is aan die wil van die meerderheid. Die minderheid kan hulself hierdeur in 'n onbenydenswaardige posisie bevind, veral indien die meerderheid hul mag aanwend om hul eie belange te bevorder. Gemeenregtelik is die reel in Foss v Harbottle 'n struikelblok vir minderheidsaandeelhouers wat gedingvoering beoog. In 'n poging om die gebrekkige gemeenregtelike beskerming van minderhede te ondervang, is bepaalde statutere maatreels ingevoer. Die evaluasie van hierdie maatreels geskied aan die hand van 'n regsvergelykende ondersoek na verskeie buitelandse stelsels, waarvan die van Nieu-Seeland en Kanada uit staan vanwee die innoverende aard van hul statutere beskermingsmaatreels. Die gevolgtrekking is dat die beskerming wat die Suid-Afrikaanse statutere maatreels aan minderhede bied, onbevredigend is om verskeie redes. Eerstens is hierdie maatreels dikwels te eng bewoord wat daartoe lei dat die aanwendingsveld van die maatreels beperk is. Tweedens hou die maatreels nie tred met ontwikkelings elders in die wereld en veranderende omstandighede en behoeftes in die praktyk nie. Derdens ontbreek goed geformuleerde remedies wat aanvullend tot artikel 252 van die Wet sal wees. Daar is verder bevind dat ad hocwysigings van bestaande maatreels nie die gewenste resultaat gaan bereik nie en 'n algehele hervorming van die Suid-Afrikaanse maatskappyereg word aanbeveel. Ten slotte word konkrete voorstelle in die vorm van konsepwetgewing gemaak en word vergesel van verduidelikende notas. Hierdie wetgewing is hoofsaaklik aan die hand van die Nieu-Seelandse en Kanadese modelle geformuleer.There is a growing awareness of the need for effective protection of minority shareholders. This can probably be ascribed to the acknowledgement of the fact that prejudicial conduct harms not only minority shareholders, but also the economy at large. Companies are governed by the principle of majority rule; consequently the minority is subjected to the will of the majority. This often places the minority in an invidious position, especially when the majority use their power to further their own interests. The rule in Foss v Harbottle presents a stumbling block to minority shareholder action. Certain statutory measures have been introduced in an effort to counter defective minority protection. These statutory measures are evaluated in the light of a comparative study of several foreign jurisdictions, the most prominent of which are New Zealand and Canada, because of the innovative nature of the measures which they employ. The conclusion arrived at is that, for various reasons, the protection afforded minorities by the South African statutory measures is unsatisfactory. Firstly, the wording of these measures is narrowly construed; this in turn results in a narrow field of application. Secondly, these measures are not in step with developments elsewhere in the world and with the changing circumstances and needs in practice. Thirdly, well-formulated remedies needed in order to supplement section 252 of the Act are non-existent. It has also been found that ad hoc amendments of existing measures will not achieve the required result, and consequently a complete reform of South African company law is recommended. Finally, specific recommendations in the form of draft legislation are made; these are accompanied by explanatory notes. This draft legislation was formulated primarily along the lines of the New Zealand and Canadian models.Private LawLL.D

Application opportunities of geographic information systems analysis to support achievement of the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets in South Africa

In an effort to achieve control of the HIV epidemic, 90-90-90 targets have been proposed whereby 90% of the HIV-infected population should know their status, 90% of those diagnosed should be receiving antiretroviral therapy, and 90% of those on treatment should be virologically suppressed. In this article we present approaches for using relatively simple geographic information systems (GIS) analyses of routinely available data to support HIV programme management towards achieving the 90-90-90 targets, with a focus on South Africa (SA) and other high-prevalence settings in low- and middle-income countries. We present programme-level GIS applications to map aggregated health data and individual-level applications to track distinct patients. We illustrate these applications using data from City of Johannesburg Region D, demonstrating that GIS has great potential to guide HIV programme operations and assist in achieving the 90-90-90 targets in SA

Argonne National Laboratory Reports

This report is designed to analyze the commercialization potential of various concepts of community-scale energy systems that have been termed Integrated Community Energy Systems (ICES). A case analysis of alternative ICES concepts applied to a major metropolitan development complex is documented. The intent of this study is twofold: (1) to develop a framework for comparing ICES technologies to conventional energy supply systems and (2) to identify potential problems in the commercialization of new systems approaches to energy conservation. In brief, the ICES Program of the ERDA Office of Energy Conservation is intended to identify the opportunities for energy conservation in the community context through analysis, development, and/or demonstration of: location and design of buildings, building complexes, and infrastructure links; engineering and systems design of existing, emerging, and advanced energy production and delivery technologies and systems; regulatory designs for public planning, administration, and regulation of energy-conserving community development and energy services; and financial planning for energy-conserving community development and energy supply systems

Implementation of an electronic monitoring and evaluation system for the antiretroviral treatment programme in the Cape Winelands district, South Africa: a qualitative evaluation

BACKGROUND: A pragmatic three-tiered approach to monitor the world's largest antiretroviral treatment (ART) programme was adopted by the South African National Department of Health in 2010. With the rapid expansion of the programme, the limitations of the paper-based register (tier 1) were the catalyst for implementation of the stand-alone electronic register (tier 2), which offers simple digitisation of the paper-based register. This article engages with theory on implementation to identify and contextualise enabling and constraining factors for implementation of the electronic register, to describe experiences and use of the register, and to make recommendations for implementation in similar settings where standardisation of ART monitoring and evaluation has not been achieved. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative evaluation of the roll-out of the register. This comprised twenty in-depth interviews with a diverse sample of stakeholders at facility, sub-district, and district levels of the health system. Facility-level participants were selected across five sub-districts, including one facility per sub-district. Responses were coded and analysed using a thematic approach. An implementation science framework guided interpretation of the data. Results & DISCUSSION: We identified the following seven themes: 1) ease of implementation, 2) perceived value of an electronic M&E system, 3) importance of stakeholder engagement, 4) influence of a data champion, 5) operational and logistical factors, 6) workload and role clarity, and 7) importance of integrating the electronic register with routine facility monitoring and evaluation. Interpreting our findings through an implementation theory enabled us to construct the scaffolding for implementation across the five facility-settings. This approach illustrated that implementation was not a linear process but occurred at two nodes: at the adoption of the register for roll-out, and at implementation at facility-level. CONCLUSION: In this study we found that relative advantage of an intervention and stakeholder engagement are critical to implementation. We suggest that without these aspects of implementation, formative and summative outcomes of implementation at both the adoption and coalface stages of implementation would be negatively affected

Reference values for wrist-worn accelerometer physical activity metrics in England children and adolescents

Background: Over the last decade use of raw acceleration metrics to assess physical activity has increased. Metrics such as Euclidean Norm Minus One (ENMO), and Mean Amplitude Deviation (MAD) can be used to generate metrics which describe physical activity volume (average acceleration), intensity distribution (intensity gradient), and intensity of the most active periods (MX metrics) of the day. Presently, relatively little comparative data for these metrics exists in youth. To address this need, this study presents age- and sex-specific reference percentile values in England youth and compares physical activity volume and intensity profiles by age and sex. Methods: Wrist-worn accelerometer data from 10 studies involving youth aged 5 to 15 y were pooled. Weekday and weekend waking hours were first calculated for youth in school Years (Y) 1&2, Y4&5, Y6&7, and Y8&9 to determine waking hours durations by age-groups and day types. A valid waking hours day was defined as accelerometer wear for ≥ 600 min·d−1 and participants with ≥ 3 valid weekdays and ≥ 1 valid weekend day were included. Mean ENMO- and MAD-generated average acceleration, intensity gradient, and MX metrics were calculated and summarised as weighted week averages. Sex-specific smoothed percentile curves were generated for each metric using Generalized Additive Models for Location Scale and Shape. Linear mixed models examined age and sex differences. Results: The analytical sample included 1250 participants. Physical activity peaked between ages 6.5–10.5 y, depending on metric. For all metrics the highest activity levels occurred in less active participants (3rd-50th percentile) and girls, 0.5 to 1.5 y earlier than more active peers, and boys, respectively. Irrespective of metric, boys were more active than girls (p < .001) and physical activity was lowest in the Y8&9 group, particularly when compared to the Y1&2 group (p < .001). Conclusions: Percentile reference values for average acceleration, intensity gradient, and MX metrics have utility in describing age- and sex-specific values for physical activity volume and intensity in youth. There is a need to generate nationally-representative wrist-acceleration population-referenced norms for these metrics to further facilitate health-related physical activity research and promotion

ExoClock Project. III. 450 New Exoplanet Ephemerides from Ground and Space Observations

The ExoClock project has been created to increase the efficiency of the Ariel mission. It will achieve this by continuously monitoring and updating the ephemerides of Ariel candidates, in order to produce a consistent catalog of reliable and precise ephemerides. This work presents a homogenous catalog of updated ephemerides for 450 planets, generated by the integration of ∼18,000 data points from multiple sources. These sources include observations from ground-based telescopes (the ExoClock network and the Exoplanet Transit Database), midtime values from the literature, and light curves from space telescopes (Kepler, K2, and TESS). With all the above, we manage to collect observations for half of the postdiscovery years (median), with data that have a median uncertainty less than 1 minute. In comparison with the literature, the ephemerides generated by the project are more precise and less biased. More than 40% of the initial literature ephemerides had to be updated to reach the goals of the project, as they were either of low precision or drifting. Moreover, the integrated approach of the project enables both the monitoring of the majority of the Ariel candidates (95%), and also the identification of missing data. These results highlight the need for continuous monitoring to increase the observing coverage of the candidate planets. Finally, the extended observing coverage of planets allows us to detect trends (transit-timing variations) for a sample of 19 planets. All the products, data, and codes used in this work are open and accessible to the wider scientific community

ExoClock Project III: 450 new exoplanet ephemerides from ground and space observations

The ExoClock project has been created with the aim of increasing the efficiency of the Ariel mission. It will achieve this by continuously monitoring and updating the ephemerides of Ariel candidates over an extended period, in order to produce a consistent catalogue of reliable and precise ephemerides. This work presents a homogenous catalogue of updated ephemerides for 450 planets, generated by the integration of $\sim$18000 data points from multiple sources. These sources include observations from ground-based telescopes (ExoClock network and ETD), mid-time values from the literature and light-curves from space telescopes (Kepler/K2 and TESS). With all the above, we manage to collect observations for half of the post-discovery years (median), with data that have a median uncertainty less than one minute. In comparison with literature, the ephemerides generated by the project are more precise and less biased. More than 40\% of the initial literature ephemerides had to be updated to reach the goals of the project, as they were either of low precision or drifting. Moreover, the integrated approach of the project enables both the monitoring of the majority of the Ariel candidates (95\%), and also the identification of missing data. The dedicated ExoClock network effectively supports this task by contributing additional observations when a gap in the data is identified. These results highlight the need for continuous monitoring to increase the observing coverage of the candidate planets. Finally, the extended observing coverage of planets allows us to detect trends (TTVs - Transit Timing Variations) for a sample of 19 planets. All products, data, and codes used in this work are open and accessible to the wider scientific community.Comment: Recommended for publication to ApJS (reviewer's comments implemented). Main body: 13 pages, total: 77 pages, 7 figures, 7 tables. Data available at http://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/P298