Willful Patent Filing : A Criminal Procedure Protecting Traditional Knowledge

This article explores the interaction between current intellectual property regimes and traditional knowledge and concludes that national laws currently in place inadequately protect traditional knowledge holders. When property rights are granted on traditional knowledge, the effects can extend not only to the indigenous communities, but to the surrounding ecosystems and the global market. Commercialization and increased demand leads to shortages in natural resources and increased prices. Therefore, in order to ensure that patent applicants are deterred from acquiring property rights in traditional knowledge, as well that traditional knowledge holders receive proper benefits for their labor and knowledge, this article advocates for an addition to the TRIPS Agreement under Article 61. The amendment would mandate that signatory nations implement criminal procedures and penalties to be applied in cases where a patent is knowingly obtained, or an application for patent is knowingly filed, for subject matter that is not novel or non-obvious based on the prior use of traditional knowledge. To ensure that traditional knowledge may be made available to the public, the amendment would further recognize a quasi-right of the traditional knowledge holders which permits the community to grant to consent to access and use in return for shared benefits arrangements

A Weak Invariance Principle and Asymptotic Stability for Evolution Equations with Bounded Generators

If V is a Lyapunov function of an equation du/dt u’ Zu in a Banach space thenasymptotic stability of an equilibrium point may be easily proved if it is known that sup(V’) < 0 onsufficiently small spheres centered at the equilibrium point. In this paper weak asymptotic stability isproved for a bounded infinitesimal generator Z under a weaker assumption V’ < 0 (which aloneimplies ordinary stability only) if some observability condition, involving Z and the Frechet derivativeof V’, is satisfied. The proof is based on an extension of LaSalle’s invariance principle, which yieldsconvergence in a weak topology and uses a strongly continuous Lyapunov funcdon. The theory isillustrated with an example of an integro-differential equation of interest in the theory of chemicalprocesses. In this case strong asymptotic stability is deduced from the weak one and explicit sufficientconditions for stability are given. In the case of a normal infinitesimal generator Z in a Hilbertspace, strong asymptotic stability is proved under the following assumptions Z* + Z is weaklynegative definite and Ker Z 0 }. The proof is based on spectral theory

Noble Polish sexuality and the corrupted European body

This article attends to the instrumentalization of gender and sexuality in recent Polish political campaigns. Locating current political debates in a cultural-historical context of long-established hierarchical divides, it conceives of gender and sexuality as ‘empty signifiers’ deployed in political struggles (for hegemony) over notions of civic responsibility, good citizenship and articulations of Europeanness. Similarly, it takes ‘Europeanness’ as an empty signifier, without any essential meaning, arguing that these signifiers are key to understanding recent mobilizations around moral frontiers in Polish politics. Illustrative examples serve to elaborate how LGBT rights and sex education are instrumentalized among self-proclaimed liberals as well as rightwing nationalists, seeking to guarantee the moral integrity of the nation according to an antagonistic logic. On both sides of the political divide, we witness a self-orientalizing positioning towards the European ‘core’, whether phrased in terms of sexual modernity or Christian civilization.publishedVersio

A Common Bile Duct Stone formed by Suture Material after Open Cholecystectomy

The use of non-absorbable suture materials for cystic duct ligation after cholecystectomy can expose patients to the risk of recurrent stone formation in the common bile duct (CBD). However, in Korea suture materials have rarely been found to act as a nidus for common bile duct calculus formation. Recently, we experienced a case in which suture material, that had migrated from a previous cholecystectomy site into the CBD, probably served as a nidus for common bile duct stone formation. The stone was confirmed by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and removed successfully using a basket. The authors report a case of surgical suture migration and discuss its subsequent role as a stone forming nucleus within the CBD in a patient who underwent open cholecystectomy; and include a review of the literature

The UK: A warm and friendly welcome?

This reports back on the findings of a hate crime project undertaken recently in the UK. It is a final document intended for those who took part in the project

The avoidance of moral panic – An Anglo-Polish perspective

This was a joint keynote presentation undertaken for a partner session as part of the PIES European Commission co-funded project on the exchange of forensic DNA data under Prüm

Poly - bejakandet av samtidigt begär och samtidig kärlek. : En genusvetenskaplig intervjustudie om att (vilja) ha flera kärleksfulla intima relationer samtidigt.

Poly, to live in several loving and intimate relationships at the same time, is one alternative to the mono norm. In Sweden polygamy is illegal yet in recent years poly has slowly started to enter the hetero normative political agenda and raise debate in the media. But what does poly mean, and how do those who identify with this type of relationship describe it in contrast to mono? The theoretical framework is based on a structural viewpoint of the changes in the organisation of the family and the growing de-traditionalism of society. Amongst other I use a Foucauldian perspective to explain the structural shift (yet not replacement) between an Alliance pattern and a Sexuality pattern. Other theories in use are that of the emerging ideal of The Pure Relationship and Queer Tendencies. The essay draws its empirical results from seven e-mail and/or face interviews with individuals who identify with poly. The results show that if poly and mono are both understood as expression of the pure relationship they are potentially not so different. Yet the stigma and the lack of role models show that there is much needed public debate about it to unleash it from old discourses that still seem to uphold the equation that love equals two partners. Drawing attention to queer mechanism and the initiated process of the decentralisation of the heterosexual norm, I speculate that in the future polygamy must not be a foreign concept in Swedish society

Indian Cross-Cultural Counselling : Implications of practicing counselling in urban Karnataka with Western counselling methods.

This study presents how Indian counsellors in urban India work with Western counselling methods with Indian clients. The study is categorised as part of the cross-cultural counselling research field where a major assumption is that counselling methods are part universal, part contextual. This study explores how counsellors in Bangalore culturally adapt Western methods. The method used is qualitative semi-structured interviews with seven counsellors at Parivarthan Counselling, Training and Research Centre in Bangalore. The theoretical framework in this study is based on New Institutional Theory, with constructs such as Glocalisation, Translation, and finally Cultural Preparedness to understand the context of the counselling profession in Bangalore. Results show that the Bangalore counsellors meet clients that are culturally prepared for short-term and advice-oriented counselling. The clients are part of a context where family and spirituality are of great importance. The counsellors use Western counselling methods only but adapt their approach and language with indigenous elements and emphasise the individuality of each client. They use a person-centred and an integrative approach, in which they are informed by several Western counselling methods, but do not use them dogmatically. The individuals’ needs and the relationship between counsellor and client is emphasised. Parivarthan Counselling, Training and Research Centre is part of a complex organisational field with influences from India, the East as well as from the West

The structure and existence of solutions of the problem of consumption with satiation in continuous time.

With the help of the method of Lagrange multipliers and KKT theory, we investigate the structure and existence of optimal solutions of the continuous-time model of consumption with satiation. We show that the differential equations have no solutions in the C1 class but that solutions exist in a wider space of functions, namely, the space of functions of bounded variation with non-negative Borel measures as controls. We prove our theorems with no additional assumptions about the structure of the control Borel measures. We prove the conjecture made in the earlier literature, that there are only three types of solutions: I-shaped solutions, with a gulp of consumption at the end of the interval and no consumption at the beginning or in the interior; U-shaped solutions, with consumption in the entire interior of the interval and gulps at the beginning and the end; and intermediate (J-shaped) solutions, with an initial interval of abstinence followed by a terminal interval of distributed consumption at rates and a gulp at the end. We also establish the criteria that permit determination of the solution type using the problem's parameters. When the solution structure is known, we reduce the problem of the existence of a solution to algebraic equations and discuss the solvability of these equations. We construct explicit solutions for logarithmic utility and CRRA utility