Abstract Intellectual property rights and quality improvement

This paper explores why theories about the effects of intellectual property rights (IPR) pro-tection on foreign direct investment (FDI) and innovation have reached mixed conclusions. In our model, Northern Þrms innovate to improve the quality of existing products and may later shift pro-duction to the South through FDI. Southern Þrms may then imitate the products of multinationals. We Þnd that imitation increases FDI and innovation, the opposite of existing models in which in-novators develop new varieties. Hence, stronger IPR protection, by reducing imitation, may shift the composition of innovation away from improvements in existing products toward development of new products

Two Decades of Wildlife Pathogen Surveillance: Case Study of <i>Choclo orthohantavirus</i> and Its Wild Reservoir <i>Oligoryzomys costaricensis</i>

The Costa Rican pygmy rice rat (Oligoryzomys costaricensis) is the primary reservoir of Choclo orthohantavirus (CHOV), the causal agent of hantavirus disease, pulmonary syndrome, and fever in humans in Panama. Since the emergence of CHOV in early 2000, we have systematically sampled and archived rodents from >150 sites across Panama to establish a baseline understanding of the host and virus, producing a permanent archive of holistic specimens that we are now probing in greater detail. We summarize these collections and explore preliminary habitat/virus associations to guide future wildlife surveillance and public health efforts related to CHOV and other zoonotic pathogens. Host sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene form a single monophyletic clade in Panama, despite wide distribution across Panama. Seropositive samples were concentrated in the central region of western Panama, consistent with the ecology of this agricultural commensal and the higher incidence of CHOV in humans in that region. Hantavirus seroprevalence in the pygmy rice rat was >15% overall, with the highest prevalence in agricultural areas (21%) and the lowest prevalence in shrublands (11%). Host–pathogen distribution, transmission dynamics, genomic evolution, and habitat affinities can be derived from the preserved samples, which include frozen tissues, and now provide a foundation for expanded investigations of orthohantaviruses in Panama