The Economics of Medical Patents And The U.S. Government’s Role In Drug Price Negotiations

The U.S. government’s recent but unusual push to negotiate drug prices has struck a chord with many Americans, with polls showing a significant, bipartisan majority favoring the action.This action presents an opportunity to appreciate medical patents’ role in spurring innovation forward. Amid changing policies, medical patents shape the accessibility and affordability of care through their impact on drug pricing. Drug prices in the United States are notably high—about 2.4 times those in other developed countries. This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal website on October 24, 2023. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above

Narratives of Enfoldment: Multi-linear and Parafictional Storytelling in Media Art

Narratives have been witnessing a state of enfoldment within the virtual world(s) since the proliferation of transmedia story worlds and new media art works. The aesthetics of enfoldment are discussed by Laura U. Marks within different trends in media art. She follows a genealogy of media art that has its roots in premodern Islamic concepts. Enfoldment is therefore situated as the broad framework of this paper’s discussion. Since the prevalence of the concept of transmedia storytelling, coined by Henry Jenkins in 2007, different franchises (be it in entertainment and others) have adopted certain narrative tropes to create a transmedia presence or universe. One of these tropes is the usage of multi-linear storytelling. Multi-linearity is one of the forms narrative storytelling that liberates a story from its temporal structure, making the consumption of narrative open to the end user. Parafiction, on the other hand, denotes instances when the lines between fact and fiction become blurry creating contemporary artworks where story worlds are essential for the dissemination of the works themselves. According to Lambert-beaty (2009) “the slew of recent writings trying to describe or explain this condition ranges from philosophical explorations of ‘the ethics of the lie’, to moralist warnings about our entry into ‘the post-truth era’” (Lambert-beatty, 2009). The following article aims at disseminating past scholarship on multi-linear and parafictional storytelling in trans and new media art in an attempt at shaping the theoretical framework of my doctoral thesis project; a podcast series intended for online dissemination that features conversations between a fictional character and non-fictional historical figures

The “Prudent Person” Standard in ESOP Breach of Duty of Care Claims

(Excerpt) Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) are a form of statutory pension program designed to invest employee retirement assets in the stock of the employer. Under the Employment Retirement and Income Securities Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), ESOP fiduciaries must discharge their duties “with the care, skill, prudence and diligence under the circumstances prevailing that a prudent man acting in a like capacity and familiar with such matters would use in the conduct of an enterprise of a like character and with like aims.” This is to say that under ERISA, ESOP fiduciaries are liable for breaches of duty of care, unlike most corporate fiduciaries that are relieved from such liabilities by state exculpation statutes. Before the Supreme Court decided Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer, this duty of care was applied with an “abuse of discretion” standard by some of the United States Courts of Appeals. For example, in Moench v. Robertson, the Third Circuit explained that (1) ESOPs are consistent with the formulation of a trust because they are formulated with the primary purpose of investing in employer securities and (2) “[w]here discretion is conferred upon the trustee with respect to the exercise of a power, its exercise is not subject to control by the court, except to prevent an abuse by the trustee of his discretion.” (emphasis added). In Fifth Third, the Supreme Court changed this abuse of discretion standard to the “stricter” “prudent person” standard applied to all ESOP fiduciaries under 29 U.S.C. § 1104. But while Fifth Third seemed to create a heavier burden for ESOP fiduciaries, the devil was in the details. The Supreme Court also announced that, in the case of publicly traded stock, absent “special circumstances,” the “prudent person” standard would not require an ESOP to recognize from publicly available information alone that the market is over- or undervaluing that stock. Thus, after Fifth Third, plaintiffs were left with two options in ESOP breach of duty of care claims: (1) allege a breach based on public information and be forced to plead a “special circumstance” affecting market price reliability and/or (2) allege a breach based on nonpublic information but (a) show an alternative action that could have been taken in compliance with securities laws and (b) show that a prudent fiduciary in the same circumstances would not have viewed this action as more likely to harm the fund than to help it

“Le fantasme de Babel Aboli” vs. Babel ou la facture assumée

Il est indéniable que nulle époque n’a autant insisté, comme c’est le cas lors de ces dernières décennies, pour rendre à la traduction ses lettres de noblesse. On a assisté à la multiplication des études qui prenaient en considération, dans la pratique interprétative, des enjeux auxquels l’humanité n’a pas eu auparavant à faire face. nous nous proposons dans notre intervention de nous centrer sur une réflexion sur la traduction et les liens qu’elle entretient avec la langue et la culture à partir d’un a priori qui a façonné les rapports de l’imaginaire occidental avec l’imagination, à savoir le mythe de Babel.It is known that our era is the era of translation. Many studies were dedicated in these last decades to understand in the process of translation many whereabouts which are very new in the history of humanity. we propose in our intervention to study the translation and the links that it has to the language and culture. In our study, we realize the importance of the myth of Babylon which is related to the comprehension of translation in the occidental imaginary.é inegável que em momento algum foi tão enfatizada a necessidade de traduzir as cartas de nobreza, como nas últimas décadas. Temos assistido à proliferação de estudos que levaram em conta, na prática, questões interpretativas com que a humanidade ainda não se tinha deparado. na nossa intervenção, propomos concentrarmo-nos em uma relexão sobre tradução e suas ligações com a língua e a cultura a partir de um a priori que moldou as relações do imaginário ocidental com a imaginação, ou seja, o mito de Babel

The growth performance of pineapple (MD2) by using different planting material on mineral soil (Vegetetive stage) / Nurul Halwani Mohd Razally

This study was conducted to investigate the growth performance of pineapple by using different planting material on the mineral soil. At University Technology Mara (UiTM), Jasin Campus, Melaka. The objective for this study is to identify the growth performance of pineapple (MD2) by using different planting material on mineral soil. to determine the best planting material that used for growth performance of pineapple on mineral soil. The planting design for this experiment is Completely Randomize Design (CRD). There were have three treatments and also have three replications which are crown, slip and sucker. The parameter that have been collected is length of leaf, number of leaf, leaf area and plant height. We choose the MD2 as pineapple variety for study their growth performance on mineral soil. This study was conducted for 154 Days. The result shown the highest mean for length of leaf (37.05 cm), number of leaf (46.22 cm), width of leaf (4.44 cm) and the plant height (38.44 cm). Lastly, the determine which one of the best planting material can give the advantage for farmer so that they also can reduce the cost in maintenance for pineapple cultivation

Adipokinetic hormone enhances laminarin and bacterial lipopolysaccharide-induced activation of the prophenoloxidase cascade in the African migratory locust, Locusta migratoria

Lom-AKH-I enhances the activation in vivo of prophenoloxidase in the haemolymph of the African migratory locust, Locusta migratoria, in response to challenge with laminarin. AKH does not influence the speed or initial magnitude of the phenoloxidase response to laminarin, but prolongs the period of activation of the enzyme in a dose-dependent manner. Injections of preparations of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) do not activate prophenoloxidase in vivo, but co-injection of Lom-AKH-I with commercial preparations of LPS from Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, or Shigella flexneri (but not one from Pseudomonas aeroginosa) results in dose-dependent increases in the levels of phenoloxidase that persist in the haemolymph for several hours. It is argued that the effects of AKH on phenoloxidase activation in locusts described here are, at least in part, related directly to changes in lipid metabolism brought about by the hormone