(Trade)mark America Great Again: Should Political Slogans Be Able to Receive Trademark Protection?

In late 2016, Donald Trump was granted trademark protection for his presidential campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” This registration is one of few—if not the only—political slogans registered as a trademark with the USPTO. Four years later, and four years after the completion of the presidential campaign which effectuated the slogan, the MAGA registration is still live and President Trump and his campaign committee continue to sell merchandise featuring the slogan prominently. However, looking at the applications and the evidence presented therein, it is not clear that the MAGA slogan constitutes a phrase worthy of trademark protection. This Note examines whether the MAGA trademarks should have been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In Part I, the Note will look at the doctrinal issues specific to the MAGA applications, highlighting ways in which the registrations may be problematic. Part II discusses the broader issues these applications introduce, namely, the ever-present tension between political and commercial speech in trademark law, and whether political slogans should ever receive trademark protection based on the state of this debate. Lastly, in Part III, the Note examines how President Trump’s treatment of his slogan may be illustrative of a larger issue that has been controversial in the first half of the Trump presidency: emoluments. In essence, this Note considers how Donald Trump is breaking the mold in terms of how presidents navigate and distinguish between their business and their politics

Enquête épidémiologique sur les parasitoses urinaires et intestinales chez les élèves des écoles primaires de l’arrondissement de Maga, Extrême-Nord Cameroun

Une étude épidémiologique sur les parasitoses urinaires et intestinales a été menée dans trois écoles primaires (EP Maga IA, EP Maga IIA, EPC Maga) de l’arrondissement de Maga, Extrême-Nord Cameroun. Le but de l’étude était de rechercher les oeufs et/ou les adultes des parasites dans les selles et les urines des élèves desdites écoles afin d’établir les fréquences. Un échantillon de 540 élèves a répondu à un questionnaire et ces mêmes élèves ont subi des examens de selles et d’urines. Au terme des investigations, les espèces de parasites suivantes avec leur prévalence ont été identifiées: Schistosoma haematobium (19,26%), Schistosoma mansoni (2,22%), Trichomonas intestinalis (2,96%), Entamoeba histolytica (5,56%). Les schistosomiases viennent en tête avec une prévalence de 21,48%, suivies des protozoaires avec une prévalence de 8,52%. La prévalence globale pour ces quatre (04) espèces de parasites est estimée à 30%, ce qui fait de Maga une zone mésoendémique.© 2016 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved.Mots clés: Enquête épidémiologique, parasitoses urinaires et intestinales, élèves, Maga, CamerounEnglish Title: Epidemiological investigation of urinary and intestinal parasites among primary schoolchildren in the district Maga, Far North CameroonEnglish AbstractAn epidemiological study on urinary and intestinal parasites was conducted in three primary schools (EP Maga IA, IIA EP Maga, Maga EPC) of the district of Maga, Far North region Cameroon. The aim of the study was to investigate the eggs and or parasites adults in faeces and urine in order to establish the prevalence. A sample of 540 students answered a questionnaire and underwent tests of stool and urine. After investigations,  the following species of parasites with their prevalence have been identified: Schistosoma haematobium (19.26%), Schistosoma mansoni (2.22%), Trichomonas intestinalis (2.96%) and Entamoeba histolytica (5.56%). Schistosomiases are in the lead with a prevalence of 21.48%, followed by protozoa with a prevalence of 8.52%. Overall prevalence for these four parasite species is 30%, what makes Maga a meso-endemic area.© 2016 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved.Keywords: Epidemiological investigation, urinary and intestinal diseases, pupils, Maga, Cameroo

Psychosocial Impairment as a Possible Cause of Sexual Dysfunction among Young Men with Mild Androgenetic Alopecia: A Cross-sectional Crowdsourcing Web-based Study

Finasteride 1 mg, one of the main treatments for male androgenetic alopecia (MAGA), may produce sexual dysfunction, but young men with MAGA could experience high psychosocial impairment because of changes in body image. Dissatisfaction with body image has been linked to an increase in problems with sexual function. To date no study has considered the possible effect of psychological impairment on sexual function of men with MAGA. Aim of our study was to explore the effect of psychosocial impairment produced by hair loss on the sexual function of men with MAGA. Patients and methods: Cross-sectional design. In total, 190 men with MAGA ranging 18-40 years old were recruited from an Internet online community. Participants completed an online survey comprising the SKINDEX-29 and the Massachusetts General Hospital Sex Functioning Questionnaire. Individuals with MAGA and moderate to severe psychosocial impairment had a higher risk of sexual dysfunction – adjusted odds ratio 2.1 (1.2-4.0; P=0.02) – compared with subjects with mild to absent impairment. Sexual desire and sexual arousal were the most affected elements of sexual response, but an increase in erectile dysfunction and reduced global satisfaction were also reported. We present the first study exploring the influence of MAGA psychosocial impairment on sexual function. Men between 18 and 40 years of age with moderate to severe MAGA psychosocial morbidity were found to have an increased risk of sexual dysfunction. Assessment of psychological morbidity and sexual function could be critical in patients with MAGA, particularly when considering treatment with finasteride.  </p

Characterization of Maga Expression and Iron Uptake in P19 Cells: Implications for Use as a Gene-Based Contrast Agent

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of the non-invasive imaging modalities used in longitudinal cell tracking. Previous studies suggest that MagA, a putative iron transport protein from magnetotactic bacteria, is a useful gene-based magnetic resonance contrast agent. Hemagglutinin (HA)-tagged MagA was stably expressed in undifferentiated embryonic mouse teratocarcinoma, multipotent P19 stem cells to provide a suitable model for tracking these cells during differentiation. Western blot and immunocytochemistry confirmed the expression and membrane localization of MagA-HA in P19 cells. Elemental iron analysis using inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry revealed significant iron uptake in both parental and MagA-HA-expressing P19 cells, cultured in the presence of iron-supplemented medium. Withdrawal of this extracellular iron supplement revealed unexpected iron export activity in P19 cells, which MagA-HA expression attenuated. The influence of iron supplementation on parental and MagA-HA-expressing cells was not reflected by longitudinal relaxation rates. Measurement of transverse relaxation rates (R2* and R2) reflected changes in total cellular iron content. In particular, the reversible component R2′ (R2* ‒ R2) provided a moderately strong correlation to amount of cellular iron, normalized to amount of protein

Analytic properties of spherical cusp forms on GL(n)

Let $\phi$ be an $L^2$-normalized spherical vector in an everywhere unramified cuspidal automorphic representation of $\mathrm{PGL}_n$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ with Laplace eigenvalue $\lambda_{\phi}$. We establish explicit estimates for various quantities related to $\phi$ that are uniform in $\lambda_{\phi}$. This includes uniforms bounds for spherical Whittaker functions on $\mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb{R})$, uniform bounds for the global sup-norm of $\phi$, and uniform bounds for the "essential support" of $\phi$, i.e. the region outside which it decays exponentially. The proofs combine analytic and arithmetic tools.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX2e, submitted; v2: revised version fixing mainly (45) and its consequences; v3: revised version incorporating suggestions by the referee, e.g. Theorem 2 is now more general than before; v4: final version to appear in Journal d'Analyse Math\'ematique; v5: small corrections added in proo

MagA expression attenuates iron export activity in undifferentiated multipotent P19 cells

© 2019 Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive imaging modality used in longitudinal cell tracking. Previous studies suggest that MagA, a putative iron transport protein from magnetotactic bacteria, is a useful gene-based magnetic resonance contrast agent. Hem-agglutinin-tagged MagA was stably expressed in undifferentiated embryonic mouse teratocarcinoma, multipotent P19 cells to provide a suitable model for tracking these cells during differentiation. Western blot and immunocytochemistry confirmed the expression and membrane localization of MagA in P19 cells. Surprisingly, elemental iron analysis using inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry revealed significant iron uptake in both parental and MagA-expressing P19 cells, cultured in the presence of iron-supplemented medium. Withdrawal of this extracellular iron supplement revealed unexpected iron export activity in P19 cells, which MagA expression attenuated. The influence of iron supplementation on parental and MagA-expressing cells was not reflected by longitudinal relaxation rates. Measurement of transverse relaxation rates (R2* and R2) reflected changes in total cellular iron content but did not clearly distinguish MagA-expressing cells from the parental cell type, despite significant differences in the uptake and retention of total cellular iron. Unlike other cell types, the reversible component R20 (R2* – R2) provided only a moderately strong correlation to amount of cellular iron, normalized to amount of protein. This is the first report to characterize MagA expression in a previously unrecognized iron exporting cell type. The interplay between contrast gene expression and systemic iron metabolism substantiates the potential for diverting cellular iron toward the formation of a novel iron compartment, however rudimentary when using a single magnetotactic bacterial gene expression system like magA. Since relatively few mammalian cells export iron, the P19 cell line provides a tractable model of ferroportin activity, suitable for magnetic resonance analysis of key iron-handling activities and their influence on gene-based MRI contrast