PATENTING PUBLIC-FUNDED RESEARCH FOR TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER : A Conceptual-Empirical Synthesis of US Evidence and Lessons for India

The question of protecting intellectual property rights by academic inventors was never seriously contemplated until the introduction of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980 in the US. The Act allowed universities to retain patent rights over inventions arising out of federally-funded research and to license those patents exclusively or nonexclusively at their discretion. This particular legislation was a response to the growing concern over the fact that federally funded inventions in the US were not reaching the market place. In this paper, we present a critical review of the US experience after the Bayh-Dole Act and argue that the evidence is far from being unambiguous. We discuss the debate surrounding the Act the extent to which it was successful in achieving its objectives, the unintended consequences, if any, and more generally, the effectiveness of IPR as a vehicle of technology transfer from universities. We also discuss the limited evidence on Bayh-Dole type legislations introduced in other countries. A new legislation, along the lines of the US Bayh-Dole Act The Protection and Utilisation of Public Funded IP Bill, 2008 is presently before the Indian parliament. The paper presents an Indian perspective against the backdrop of the US experience in an attempt to draw concrete lessons for India.Bayh-Dole Act, public-funded research, universities, Patents, India

Drivers of Academic Research and Patenting in India: Econometric Estimation of the Research Production Function

In this paper we attempt to provide a comprehensive understanding of the drivers ofacademic research and patenting in India. Academic research is conceptualised as aresearch production process where research inputs (like research time and number ofresearch scholars) are transformed into research outputs in the form of publicationsand patents. We expect research inputs by a faculty member to be an outcome ofhis/her own decision-making process, which in turn determine his/her researchoutputs. Exogenous parameters, like faculty background, faculty attitude, researchsponsorship and institutional factors, are expected to influence both set of endogenousvariables (research inputs and outputs). We specify this production function as arecursive simultaneous equation model and estimate the structural parameters usingstandard econometric methods. Our results clearly identify several drivers ofacademic research and patenting in India, in terms of faculty background, facultyattitude and other parameters, from which we arrive at concrete policy lessons forpatenting of academic research in India. In particular, we argue that putting in placeinstitutional structures will not serve the purpose without addressing the fundamentalissues of research environment, culture and attitude in the first place. In a sense,therefore, introducing an IPR legislation alone may not act as an instant magicformula to energise Indian academic research for commercial application.Academic Research, Patents, Bayh-Dole Act, India

Patenting Public-Funded Research for Technology Transfer: A Conceptual-Empirical Synthesis of US Evidence and Lessons for India

The question of protecting intellectual property rights by academic inventors wasnever seriously contemplated until the introduction of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980 inthe US. The Act allowed universities to retain patent rights over inventions arising outof federally-funded research and to license those patents exclusively or nonexclusivelyat their discretion. This particular legislation was a response to thegrowing concern over the fact that federally funded inventions in the US were notreaching the market place. In this paper, we present a critical review of the USexperience after the Bayh-Dole Act and argue that the evidence is far from beingunambiguous. We discuss the debate surrounding the Act – the extent to which it wassuccessful in achieving its objectives, the unintended consequences, if any, and moregenerally, the effectiveness of IPR as a vehicle of technology transfer fromuniversities. We also discuss the limited evidence on Bayh-Dole type legislationsintroduced in other countries. A new legislation, along the lines of the US Bayh-DoleAct – The Protection and Utilisation of Public Funded IP Bill, 2008 – is presentlybefore the Indian parliament. The paper presents an Indian perspective against thebackdrop of the US experience in an attempt to draw concrete lessons for India.Bayh-Dole Act, public-funded research, universities, patents, India

Shear viscosity due to the Landau damping from quark-pion interaction

We have calculated the shear viscosity coefficient $\eta$ of the strongly interacting matter in the relaxation time approximation, where a quasi particle description of quarks with its dynamical mass is considered from NJL model. Due to the thermodynamic scattering of quarks with pseudo scalar type condensate (i.e. pion), a non zero Landau damping will be acquired by the propagating quarks. This Landau damping may be obtained from the Landau cut contribution of the in-medium self-energy of quark-pion loop, which is evaluated in the framework of real-time thermal field theory

Influence of thermal radiation on non-Darcian natural convection in a square cavity filled with fluid saturated porous medium of uniform porosity

Influence of thermal radiation on natural-convection flow in a square cavity filled with a porous medium of uniform porosity having isothermal vertical walls and adiabatic horizontal walls, has been studied numerically by using finite-difference method with staggered grid distribution. The simulation is performed by considering both Darcian and non-Darcian models. Governing momentum and energy equations are solved numerically to obtain velocity and temperature fields for various values of different physical parameters. It is seen that increasing the thermal radiation parameter enhances the local Nusselt number on the left vertical wall whereas the reverse effects are observed due to increase in the heat generating parameter when Ra = 109. The temperature at the mid-horizontal plane decreases with increase in the value of Rayleigh number up to a certain distance from the left vertical wall and beyond that distance the opposite trend is observed. The temperature at the mid-horizontal plane increases with increase in the value of heat generating parameter

One-Loop Quantum Effects in Carroll Scalars

Carrollian field theories at the classical level possess infinite number of space-time symmetries, namely the supertranslations. In this article we enquire whether these symmetries for interacting Carrollian scalar field theory survive in presence of quantum effects. For interactions polynomial in the field, the answer is in the affirmative. We also studied a renormalization group flow particularly tailored to respect the manifest Carroll invariance and analyzed the consequences of introducing Carroll-breaking deformations. The renormalization group flow, with perturbative loop level effects taken into account, indicates a new fixed point apart from the Gaussian ones

Razvoj i vrednovanje mikrospužvastih sustava etilceluloze i ksantan gume za kontroliranu perkutanu isporuku diklofenak natrija

In this study, xanthan gum-facilitated ethyl cellulose microsponges were prepared by the double emulsification technique and subsequently dispersed in a carbopol gel base for controlled delivery of diclofenac sodium to the skin. Scanning electron microscopy revealed the porous, spherical nature of the microsponges. Increase in the drug/polymer ratio (0.4:1, 0.6:1, 0.8:1, m/m) increased their yield (79.1–88.5 %), drug entrapment efficiency (50.0–64.1 %), and mean particle diameter (181–255 µm). Compared to the microsponges with high drug/polymer ratio (0.8:1, m/m), the flux of entrapped drug through excised rat skin decreased by 19.9 % and 17.0 %, respectively, for the microsponges prepared at low and intermediate drug/polymer ratios. When an equivalent amount of pure drug (not entrapped into microsponges) was dispersed into the gel base and the flux was compared, the microsponges (drug/polymer ratio 0.8:1, m/m) were found to reduce the flux by 33.3 %. Whether the drug was dispersed either in un-entrapped or entrapped form into the gel base, the drug permeation through rat skin followed Higuchi\u27s diffusion kinetic model. The microsponges prepared at the lowest drug/polymer ratio exhibited a comparatively slower drug permeation profile and were hence considered most suitable for controlled drug delivery application. FTIR spectroscopy and DSC analyses indicated the chemically stable, amorphous nature of the drug in these microsponges. The gel containing these optimized microsponges was comparable to that of a commercial gel formulation and did not show serious dermal reactions. Hence, the microsponge system obtained at the lowest drug/polymer ratio could be useful for controlled release of diclofenac sodium to the skin.U radu su opisani mikrospužvasti sustavi s etilcelulozom i ksantan gumom pripravljeni metodom dvostruke emulzifikacije i dispergirani u podlogu s karbopol gelom za kontrolirano oslobađanje diklofenak natrija na kožu. Elektronska pretražna mikroskopija potvrdila je poroznu, sferičnu strukturu mikrospužvastih sustava. Povećanjem omjera lijeka i polimera (0,4:1, 0,6:1, 0,8:1, m/m) povećalo se iskorištenje (79,1–88,5 %), količina uklopljenog lijeka (50,0–64,1 %) i srednji promjer čestica (181–255 µm). Prolaz uklopljenog lijeka kroz izrezane komade kože štakora smanjio se za 19,9 %, odnosno 17,0 %, kada se omjer lijeka i polimera smanjio s visokog (0,8:1, m/m) na niski i srednji. Oslobađanje iz mikrospužvastih struktura s omjerom lijeka i polimera 0,8:1 (m/m) smanjeno je za 33,3 % u odnosu na oslobađanje ekvivalentne količina lijeka koji nije uklopljen već samo dispergiran u geliranu podlogu. Ako je lijek bio dispergiran kao neuklopljen ili kao uklopljen u geliranu podlogu, permeacija lijeka kroz kožu štakora slijedila je Higuchijev difuzijski kinetički model. Mikrospužvaste strukture pripravljene uz najniži omjer lijeka i polimera pokazale su sporiji permeacijski profil pa ih smatramo najpovoljnijima za kontrolirano oslobađanje lijeka. FTIR spektroskopija i DSC analiza pokazale su da je lijek u mikrospružvastim sustavima stabilan i amorfan. Gel s optimiranim mikrospužvastim sustavom sličan je komercijalnom gelu i ne pokazuje ozbiljne kožne reakcije. Sustav pripravljen s najnižim omjerom lijeka i polimera mogao bi biti pogodan za kontrolirano oslobađanje diklofenak natrija na kožu

First quantitative exploration of benthic megafaunal assemblages on the mid-oceanic ridge system of the Carlsberg Ridge, Indian Ocean

There are few quantitative studies on deep-sea biodiversity from the Indian Ocean, particularly on the mid-ocean ridges (MOR). We investigated the benthic megafaunal community structure of the Indian Ocean MOR at the Carlsberg Ridge (CR) using underwater video observation by the Television Gripper (TVG) and Ocean Floor Observation System (OFOS) during a multidisciplinary scientific cruise in 2007. Our aim was to observe megafaunal assemblages and their variation with bottom substrate at different geological settings in the CR region. The fauna was identified at best possible taxonomic resolution from video images and data were quantified by photogrammetry. Variation of substratum type was greatest in the deeper areas of the CR region, with substrata varying from fine sediments to basalts. A total of eight substratum types and 90 megafaunal taxa, representing seven phyla, have been classified throughout the 10 transects. Faunal abundances ranged between 171.3 to 5.7 animals 1000 m−2, with higher abundances at the shallower transects, in off-axial highs, and lower at deeper zones, on the rift valley wall and floor. Cnidarians were dominant at off-axial highs while echinoderms prevailed at rift valley floor transects. Other frequently encountered faunal components were poriferans and chordates, observed at shallower as well as deeper transects. This is the first detailed investigation of megafaunal assemblages from the Indian Ocean MOR