Liability for Trademark Infringement in Web 2.0 Era: Analysis of Legal Conundrum in Google and Ebay Cases

Many online entrepreneurs do not realize that they may be held legally liable for keywords they select during their marketing campaigns, especially if they correspond to registered or famous trade marks. The present contribution highlights some of the most important aspects of the Google and eBay cases that illustrate this problem. The European Court of Justice has recently ruled that a search engine provider is not infringing trade marks as it does not use them in a legal sense. The advertiser, in turn, will usually be held primarily liable, although eBay dispute demonstrates there may be a room for manoeuvre for larger intermediaries. These legal developments are important, firstly because they promise to offer a greater protection to Web 2.0 business models based on user-generated content. Secondly, online business offering paid search services will be shielded from liability for storing infringing content provided that their activities remain technically neutral

Sexually transmitted infections in the military environment

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have always been a major health issue affecting military personnel in all types of services and in all armed forces around the world, especially during deployments and in operational settings. Although the research shows that STIs are still reported in the military, the epidemiological risk for contracting a sexually transmitted infection is much lower nowadays than it was in the past. It is important, however, that service members are routinely screened for sexually transmitted diseases. Because of a high prevalence of STIs in the general population as well as the asymptomatic nature of some infections (e.g. HIV, Chlamydia trachomatis), screening of the sexually active service personnel is recommended as a practical method of preventing the spread of STIs and their sequelae, such as pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, infertility in women or epididymitis, prostatitis, infertility in men. The rates of STIs in service members have been on the increase in recent years, which may be associated with the fact that more and more women are now seeking a career in the armed forces. Currently, STIs do not only affect male soldiers or their civilian sexual partners (either long-term or casual), but both male and female soldiers alike, especially if they are serving together. The article focuses on the prevalence of STIs in the military in the past and at present, the common STI risk factors and prevention measures

Multistage genesis of sediments filling Zygmunta Cave

The article deals with the co-occurrence of interlayering various generations of speleothems and clastic cave sediments in the recently discovered Zygmunta Cave (Kraków Upland). The clastic sediments include specific black-coloured pisoids composed of iron or manganese minerals. Regardless the age of the deposits they indicate the multistage filling of the cave in changing palaeoenvironmental conditions

On convergence and threshold properties of discrete lotka-volterra population protocols

In this work we focus on a natural class of population protocols whose dynamics are modeled by the discrete version of Lotka-Volterra equations with no linear term. In such protocols, when an agent a of type (species) i interacts with an agent b of type (species) j with a as the initiator, then b’s type becomes i with probability Pij. In such an interaction, we think of a as the predator, b as the prey, and the type of the prey is either converted to that of the predator or stays as is. Such protocols capture the dynamics of some opinion spreading models and generalize the well-known Rock-Paper-Scissors discrete dynamics. We consider the pairwise interactions among agents that are scheduled uniformly at random. We start by considering the convergence time and show that any Lotka-Volterra-type protocol on an n-agent populati

Longitudinal blood biomarker trajectories in preclinical Alzheimer's disease

INTRODUCTION: Plasma biomarkers are altered years prior to Alzheimer's disease (AD) clinical onset. METHODS: We measured longitudinal changes in plasma amyloid-beta (Aβ)42/40 ratio, pTau181, pTau231, neurofilament light chain (NfL), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in a cohort of older adults at risk of AD (n = 373 total, n = 229 with Aβ and tau positron emission tomography [PET] scans) considering genetic and demographic factors as possible modifiers of these markers' progression. RESULTS: Aβ42/40 ratio concentrations decreased, while NfL and GFAP values increased over the 4-year follow-up. Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 carriers showed faster increase in plasma pTau181 than non-carriers. Older individuals showed a faster increase in plasma NfL, and females showed a faster increase in plasma GFAP values. In the PET subsample, individuals both Aβ-PET and tau-PET positive showed faster plasma pTau181 and GFAP increase compared to PET-negative individuals. DISCUSSION: Plasma markers can track biological change over time, with plasma pTau181 and GFAP markers showing longitudinal change in individuals with preclinical AD. HIGHLIGHTS: Longitudinal increase of plasma pTau181 and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) can be measured in the preclinical phase of AD. Apolipoprotein E ε4 carriers experience faster increase in plasma pTau181 over time than non-carriers. Female sex showed accelerated increase in plasma GFAP over time compared to males. Aβ42/40 and pTau231 values are already abnormal at baseline in individuals with both amyloid and tau PET burden

Long-term efficacy and safety of osilodrostat in patients with Cushing’s disease: results from the LINC 4 study extension

ObjectiveTo evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of osilodrostat in patients with Cushing’s disease.MethodsThe multicenter, 48-week, Phase III LINC 4 clinical trial had an optional extension period that was initially intended to continue to week 96. Patients could continue in the extension until a managed-access program or alternative treatment became available locally, or until a protocol amendment was approved at their site that specified that patients should come for an end-of-treatment visit within 4 weeks or by week 96, whichever occurred first. Study outcomes assessed in the extension included: mean urinary free cortisol (mUFC) response rates; changes in mUFC, serum cortisol and late-night salivary cortisol (LNSC); changes in cardiovascular and metabolic-related parameters; blood pressure, waist circumference and weight; changes in physical manifestations of Cushing’s disease; changes in patient-reported outcomes for health-related quality of life; changes in tumor volume; and adverse events. Results were analyzed descriptively; no formal statistical testing was performed.ResultsOf 60 patients who entered, 53 completed the extension, with 29 patients receiving osilodrostat for more than 96 weeks (median osilodrostat duration: 87.1 weeks). The proportion of patients with normalized mUFC observed in the core period was maintained throughout the extension. At their end-of-trial visit, 72.4% of patients had achieved normal mUFC. Substantial reductions in serum cortisol and LNSC were also observed. Improvements in most cardiovascular and metabolic-related parameters, as well as physical manifestations of Cushing’s disease, observed in the core period were maintained or continued to improve in the extension. Osilodrostat was generally well tolerated; the safety profile was consistent with previous reports.ConclusionOsilodrostat provided long-term control of cortisol secretion that was associated with sustained improvements in clinical signs and physical manifestations of hypercortisolism. Osilodrostat is an effective long-term treatment for patients with Cushing’s disease.Clinical trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT0218021

OGLE-2014-BLG-0962 and a Comparison of Galactic Model Priors to Microlensing Data

OGLE-2014-BLG-0962 (OB140962) is a stellar binary microlensing event that was well covered by observations from the Spitzer satellite as well as ground-based surveys. Modeling yields a unique physical solution: a mid-M+M-dwarf binary with M_(prim) = 0.20 ± 0.01 M☉ and M_(sec) = 0.16 ± 0.01 M☉, with projected separation of 2.0 ± 0.3 au. The lens is only D_(LS) = 0.41 ± 0.06 kpc in front of the source, making OB140962 a bulge lens and the most distant Spitzer binary lens to date. In contrast, because the Einstein radius (θ_E = 0.143 ± 0.007 mas) is unusually small, a standard Bayesian analysis, conducted in the absence of parallax information, would predict a brown dwarf binary. We compare the results of Bayesian analysis using two commonly used Galactic model priors to the measured values for a set of Spitzer lenses. We find all models tested predict lens properties consistent with the Spitzer data. Furthermore, we illustrate the methodology for probing the Galactic distribution of planets by comparing the cumulative distance distribution of the Spitzer two-body lenses to that of the Spitzer single lenses