Are Patents Impeding Medical Care and Innovation?

This month's debate examines whether the current patent system is crucial for stimulating health research or whether it is stifling biomedical research and impeding medical care. Background to the debate: Pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers argue that the current patent system is crucial for stimulating research and development (R&D), leading to new products that improve medical care. The financial return on their investments that is afforded by patent protection, they claim, is an incentive toward innovation and reinvestment into further R&D. But this view has been challenged in recent years. Many commentators argue that patents are stifling biomedical research, for example by preventing researchers from accessing patented materials or methods they need for their studies. Patents have also been blamed for impeding medical care by raising prices of essential medicines, such as antiretroviral drugs, in poor countries. This debate examines whether and how patents are impeding health care and innovation

Acoustic characterization of crack damage evolution in sandstone deformed under conventional and true triaxial loading

We thank the Associate Editor, Michelle Cooke, and the reviewers, Ze'ev Reches and Yves Guéguen, for useful comments which helped to improve the manuscript. We thank J.G. Van Munster for providing access to the true triaxial apparatus at KSEPL and for technical support during the experimental program. We thank R. Pricci for assistance with technical drawings of the apparatus. This work was partly funded by NERC award NE/N002938/1 and by a NERC Doctoral Studentship, which we gratefully acknowledge. Supporting data are included in a supporting information file; any additional data may be obtained from J.B. (e-mail: [email protected]).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

I Am A Real American

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/1635/thumbnail.jp

Tackling organised crime through a partnership approach: a process evaluation.

Background In 2010 the Home Office set up an initiative to engage Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) across England and Wales in exploring how local partnership working could be used to more effectively tackle organised crime. This report presents the main findings from a process evaluation undertaken of the 12 pilot sites included in this initiative

Identification of the growth arrest and DNA damage protein GADD34 in the normal human heart and demonstration of alterations in expression following myocardial ischaemia

Growth arrest and DNA damage protein 34 (GADD34) is a multifunctional protein upregulated in response to cellular stress and is believed to mediate DNA repair and restore protein synthesis. In the present study we have examined GADD34 immunoreactivity in human myocardial tissue at defined survival times following cardiac arrest and determined alterations in expression following ischaemia. In the normal human heart, GADD34 immunoreactivity was generally intense and present within most cells. GADD34 immunoreactivity was downregulated in tissue displaying ischaemic damage and remained intense in adjacent non-infarcted tissue. Unlike brain, GADD34 was not found to be upregulated in the peri-infarct zone. Cells displaying apoptotic changes were located in regions displaying reduced GADD34 immunoreactivity. In the brain, it is thought that GADD34 supports re-initiation of protein synthesis following ischaemia. Similarly, GADD34 may perform important functions in cardiac tissue in response to ischaemia

Hyperbolic calorons, monopoles, and instantons

We construct families of SO(3)-symmetric charge 1 instantons and calorons on the space H^3 x R. We show how the calorons include instantons and hyperbolic monopoles as limiting cases. We show how Euclidean calorons are the flat space limit of this family.Comment: 11 pages, no figures 1 reference added Published version available at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/k0j4815u54303450

Calcium signaling during convergent extension in Xenopus

Background: During Xenopus gastrulation, cell intercalation drives convergent extension of dorsal tissues. This process requires the coordination of motility throughout a large population of cells. The signaling mechanisms that regulate these movements in space and time remain poorly understood. Results: To investigate the potential contribution of calcium signaling to the control of morphogenetic movements, we visualized calcium dynamics during convergent extension using a calcium-sensitive fluorescent dye and a novel confocal microscopy system. We found that dramatic intercellular waves of calcium mobilization occurred in cells undergoing convergent extension in explants of gastrulating Xenopus embryos. These waves arose stochastically with respect to timing and position within the dorsal tissues. Waves propagated quickly and were often accompanied by a wave of contraction within the tissue. Calcium waves were not observed in explants of the ventral marginal zone or prospective epidermis. Pharmacological depletion of intracellular calcium stores abolished the calcium dynamics and also inhibited convergent extension without affecting cell fate. These data indicate that calcium signaling plays a direct role in the coordination of convergent extension cell movements. Conclusions: The data presented here indicate that intercellular calcium signaling plays an important role in vertebrate convergent extension. We suggest that calcium waves may represent a widely used mechanism by which large groups of cells can coordinate complex cell movements

Design of a force acquisition system for high-energy short-duration impacts

This paper describes a novel force acquisition system capable of measuring the force profiles of high-energy short-duration impacts. This force acquisition system was used to test dynamically a cricket leg guard and to create a contour map of the peak transmitted forces across the garment’s surface. The cricket leg guard was found to provide most protection in the central shin and knee regions, areas most likely to be impacted normally and so to receive the highest-energy impacts. The use of this system will enable a dynamic test procedure to be developed to mimic impact conditions encountered during a game, allowing optimization of cricket pad designs for specific impacts

A study of psychiatrists’ concepts of mental illness

Background: There are multiple models of mental illness that inform professional and lay understanding. Few studies have formally investigated psychiatrists' attitudes. We aimed to measure how a group of trainee psychiatrists understand familiar mental illnesses in terms of propositions drawn from different models. Method: We used a questionnaire study of a sample of trainees from South London and Maudsley National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust designed to assess attitudes across eight models of mental illness (e.g. biological, psychodynamic) and four psychiatric disorders. Methods for analysing repeated measures and a principal components analysis (PCA) were used. Results: No one model was endorsed by all respondents. Model endorsement varied with disorder. Attitudes to schizophrenia were expressed with the greatest conviction across models. Overall, the ‘biological’ model was the most strongly endorsed. The first three components of the PCA (interpreted as dimensions around which psychiatrists, as a group, understand mental illness) accounted for 56% of the variance. Each main component was classified in terms of its distinctive combination of statements from different models: PC1 33% biological versus non-biological; PC2 12% ‘eclectic’ (combining biological, behavioural, cognitive and spiritual models); and PC3 10% psychodynamic versus sociological. Conclusions: Trainee psychiatrists are most committed to the biological model for schizophrenia, but in general are not exclusively committed to any one model. As a group, they organize their attitudes towards mental illness in terms of a biological/non-biological contrast, an ‘eclectic’ view and a psychodynamic/sociological contrast. Better understanding of how professional group membership influences attitudes may facilitate better multidisciplinary working