Quality in European Trade Mark Law

This article addresses the capacity of trade marks to provide assurance concerning product quality and the importance of this capacity in promoting competition and various forms of innovation. It considers the meaning of “quality” in this context and shows how this can include the aesthetic and intangible characteristics of products as well as their functional and material characteristics. And it is suggested that quality assurance should cover the whole range of variable product characteristics to which at least some consumers attach value. This is because the key economic problem that underlies the need for this assurance is the difficulty that consumers may face in ascertaining or verifying the presence or absence of certain product characteristics. This article explains this problem of information asymmetry and shows how trade marks enable firms to mitigate it by providing quality assurance. As a matter of law, a trade mark merely guarantees that there is unitary control over the quality of marked products. The force behind a trade mark’s quality assurance is economic in nature and depends on its owner’s interest in maximizing the trade mark’s value as a marketing resource. There are various ways in which the owner can build up this value. These include investing in advertising and other promotional activity and in developing the trade mark’s capacity to confer intangible quality on marked products by establishing an image or particular set of associations for it. This explains the dynamic nature of a trade mark’s capacity to provide quality assurance. The article notes how European trade mark law provides additional protection for some trade marks that focus directly on their value and vulnerability as marketing resources and does not simply rely on protecting the integrity of the underlying legal guarantee

Literary Journalism and Empire: George Warrington Steevens in Africa, 1898–1900

It has been suggested that “for a few years at the end of the nineteenth century” Daily Mail correspondent George Warrington Steevens (1869–1900) was “probably the best known and most eulogized, and possibly the most influential, British journalist.”Descriptions of Steevens’s writing read like definitions of a nascent literary journalism. A contemporary judged that “there were never newspaper articles which read more like short stories than his.” Steevens’s work was typical of the highly commercial, personal, and sensational British “new” journalism of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. This essay argues that it is high time that Steevens and his fellow “new” journalists are included in the history of literary journalism. However, that inclusion raises important issues about the relationship of literary journalism to power. British “new” journalism played an important role in securing public acquiescence in the aggressive imperial expansion of the last decades of the century. Historians variously refer to that phase of imperialism—in which major European powers seized territory at an unprecedented rate—as the “Scramble for Africa” or the “new imperialism.” Arguably, it was the symbiotic closeness of the relationship between empire and “new” journalism that was the newest feature of the new imperialism. While modern literary journalism often challenges entrenched ideologies and deconstructs the discourses of the powerful, it is important to acknowledge that literary journalism has also played a part in the reification of those ideologies and the construction of those discourses

Seeking the Sources of <i>Heart of Darkness</i>: the African Narratives of late-Victorian Explorers and Journalists

This paper begins by briefly outlining the argument that Heart of Darkness should be read as something like a palimpsest – a palimpsest is, of course, a document scribed onto parchment that has previously been inscribed with other texts and still bears their traces. It argues that Heart of Darkness dramatizes various acts of writing or representation that are later effaced and overwritten or rewritten. In doing this, the novella continually gestures beyond itself to source material that too has been effaced and rewritten. The paper then takes an archaeological approach, exploring just what that source material might be and how its traces are legible in Heart of Darkness. Henry Morton Stanley’s exploration narratives are identified as significant sources, which Conrad seeks to efface and overwrite. The paper further argues that debates running in British journalism through the 1890s, which Conrad discussed in correspondence with R.B. Cunninghame Graham, shaped the tone and atmosphere of the text. Finally, the paper outlines the possible relationship of Heart of Darkness to the wider field of writing on African travel and exploration

Internet-based CBT for depression with and without telephone tracking in a national helpline: randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND Telephone helplines are frequently and repeatedly used by individuals with chronic mental health problems and web interventions may be an effective tool for reducing depression in this population. AIM To evaluate the effectiveness of a 6 week, web-based cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) intervention with and without proactive weekly telephone tracking in the reduction of depression in callers to a helpline service. METHOD 155 callers to a national helpline service with moderate to high psychological distress were recruited and randomised to receive either Internet CBT plus weekly telephone follow-up; Internet CBT only; weekly telephone follow-up only; or treatment as usual. RESULTS Depression was lower in participants in the web intervention conditions both with and without telephone tracking compared to the treatment as usual condition both at post intervention and at 6 month follow-up. Telephone tracking provided by a lay telephone counsellor did not confer any additional advantage in terms of symptom reduction or adherence. CONCLUSIONS A web-based CBT program is effective both with and without telephone tracking for reducing depression in callers to a national helpline. TRIAL REGISTRATION Controlled-Trials.comISRCTN93903959.Funding for the trial was provided by an Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant (LP0667970) (http://www.arc.gov.au/). LF is supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award Industry scholarship. KG is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Fellowship (No. 525413) and HC is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Fellowship (No. 525411)

Adherence to the MoodGYM program: Outcomes and predictors for an adolescent school-based population

Background Program adherence has been associated with improved intervention outcomes for mental and physical conditions. The aim of the current study is to investigate adolescent adherence to an Internet-based depression prevention program in schools to identify the effect of adherence on outcomes and to ascertain the predictors of program adherence. Methods Data for the current study (N=1477) was drawn from the YouthMood Project, which was conducted to test the effectiveness of the MoodGYM program in reducing and preventing symptoms of anxiety and depression in an adolescent school-based population. The current study compares intervention effects across three sub-groups: high adherers, low adherers and the wait-list control condition. Results When compared to the control condition, participants in the high adherence intervention group reported stronger intervention effects at post-intervention and 6-month follow-up than participants in the low adherence group for anxiety (d=0.34–0.39 vs. 0.11–0.22), and male (d=0.43–0.59 vs. 0.26–0.35) and female depression (d=0.13–0.20 vs. 0.02–0.04). No significant intervention effects were identified between the high and low adherence groups. Being in Year 9, living in a rural location and having higher pre-intervention levels of depressive symptoms or self-esteem were predictive of greater adherence to the MoodGYM program. Limitations The program trialled is Internet-based and therefore the predictors of adherence identified may not generalise to face-to-face interventions. Conclusions The current study provides preliminary support for the positive relationship between program adherence and outcomes in a school environment. The identification of significant predictors of adherence will assist in identifying the type of user who will engage most with an online depression prevention program.ALC is supported by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)Fellowship 1013199, HC is supported by NHMRC Fellowship 525411, and KMG is supported by NHMRC Fellowship 42541

Dispersion of seabirds at sea in the Southern Ocean

Bibliography: pages 57-66.The feasibility of obtaining information on the dispersion of seabirds at sea precise enough to reflect changes in their prey was investigated. A standardized technique for counting birds from a moving ship, designed to limit biases due to birds circling, following and/or deviating towards/from the ship, is suggested. An interspecific comparison of 31 seabird species was made to determine which species yielded the most accurate censuses. Although many species are attracted towards the ship, only the Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans follows for long periods. Counts from a stationary ship are shown to be unsuitable for abundance and biomass estimates, because of the accumulation of birds around the ship. The avifauna at sea is described in terms of species richness, diversity, abundance, biomass and trophic groups of 42 pelagic species (penguins excluded). Birds eating plankton and cephalopods are the most abundant; few birds eat fish. Plankton- and cephalopod-eaters occur most abundantly in the south and north of the study area, respectively. An association between their distribution and the availability of their principal prey is proposed. The effect of five abiotic features on seabird distribution was investigated. Although significant preference for specific ranges of features is demonstrated, linear correlations are weak (maximum correlation coefficient (r = 0.325). Abiotic features associated with the distribution of the Snow Petrel Pagodroma nivea and the Antarctic Petrel Thalassoica antarctica were investigated in greater detail. Statistical relationships between the species' occurrence and measured oceanographic and meteorological features are inconclusive. Associations with prey are discounted, because of the birds' apparently unspecialized diet and opportunistic feeding. The two species occur in or near sea-ice. Their restriction to this area and the concomitant absence of other procellariiform species appears to be consequent on the species' flight characteristics. The merits of using seabirds at sea as biological indicators of prey resources are discussed

Unspooling: artists & cinema

The 20 international artists featured in UnSpooling – Artists & Cinema, present current reflections and interpretations of cinema and new possibilities of future cinematic production, spectacle and storytelling. The research underpinning the exhibiton explored how in the age of the digital expansion into the possibilities of what cinema can be, artists are returning to analogue techologies and possibilites, to imagine future and further possiblities for the cinematic.The exhibition was co-curated by myself and Dave Griffiths as an extension of research arising from our artistic practices. This expands on a recurring artistic urge to sample film, first echoed in the makeshift cinema-going activities of Surrealists André Breton and Jacques Vaché. This exhibition presents unexpected models of the moving image and explores how something so intimate has become so pervasive, whether picking it apart, creating personal archives or playfully nodding to its forms and characteristics. UnSpooling – Artists & Cinema, gathers a wide range of works that explore text, image, sound, chemistry, gesture and spoken word, through painting, drawing, film and video. The exhibition included 10 new comissioned artworks from 7 artists. This major exhibition seeks to re-imagine Cornerhouse Galleries and cinema building as a 'fourth cinema space' in which to review the relationship and concerns of art and cinema, presenting contemporary artists' current reflections and interpretations of its form. The exhibition was part of Abandon Normal Devices festival and was Cornerhouse galleries 25th Birthday celebratory exhibition. The exhibition was previewed in AN (Oct 2010) and Flux Magazine (Autumn 2010), The Guardian (2nd Oct. 2010) and The Times (2nd Oct. 2010) and was reviewed in Art Monthly (no 341)

Implementing epilepsy guidelines within a learning disability service

SummaryPurposeTo investigate the usefulness of the implementation of NICE guidelines when reviewing care within an outpatient learning disability service.MethodsWe set up a multi disciplinary specialist epilepsy clinic and reviewed all patients with a diagnosis of epilepsy using a specific assessment document based on NICE guidance. We then audited clinical documentation prior to and after the implementation of the clinic.ResultsWe reviewed 23 patients and found that implementing NICE guidelines showed improvements to individuals’ seizure assessments and epilepsy management. When comparing specific areas related to NICE implementation we found that 83% compared to 6% of patients had accurate name and detailed seizure descriptions. We made changes to seizure diagnosis in 76% of patients and improved the level of recording of seizure frequency and severity. Finally 91% compared to 50% of consultations led to changes in treatment plans.ConclusionWe found that implementing the NICE guidelines allowed us to use a systematic approach to epilepsy management, which in turn led to identifiable improvement in documentation and patient care