The Industrialization Of The Knowledge Economy: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Intellectual Property Policies

Whether a singular stroke of brilliance or a slow evolution of discovery; ownership of ideas has been the root of innovation and controversy. Innovation is often nothing more than an idea. Ideas may be bought or sold, traded or stolen, developed or lost. Intellectual property is a legal construct created to protect exclusivity of creation and rights of commercialization and distribution. The landscape of intellectual property has become expansive and complicated. It has become difficult to classify intellectual property rights as many people consider them economic rights, and others, property rights, and still more, increasingly in the West, personal rights, much like free speech. Historically, governments and institutions have sought to control the diffusion of ideas as shifts in ideas and their proliferation have often destabilized existing structures and paradigms. One such institution is higher education. This research examines intellectual property policies within the hotbed of knowledge creation, higher education. Higher education sits in a unique position to create intellectual property. Policies have been created surrounding intellectual property within higher education since the advent of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. These policies not only limit understanding of intellectual property, but through their top down nature, their controlled structures and punitive approaches serve to limit the environment in which intellectual property might be created. These policies clearly indicate that it is the power structure that is to be preserved, not intellectual property that is to be created

Growing a Writing Practice: Non-Extractive Writing

Essays for sale, AI, plagiarism, grade seeking: clearly it’s time to revamp research and writing. Students have not learned to write well, they’ve learned to game the system, get the grade, and move on. The dominant colonized system of higher education is seeking to reinvent itself to be more accessible, equitable, and inclusive. Growing a Writing Practice begins with exercises such as writing prompts to create a practice of writing on demand. Then guides the student through a series of exercises that build a toolbox that can be utilized for any research and writing demands. What are those tools? Growing a Writing Practice begins with asking good questions and learning how to draft questions in several ways providing several lenses through which to view the question and possible answers. A culture of extractivist research and writing has emerged. Decolonizing the extractivist approach requires shifting the focus away from bias confirming, data extracting, merely citing toward a process of honouring authors as teachers, published research as teachings, a habit of ethical considerations, and research and writing not as grade seeking but as balanced and purposeful exploration of curiosity and learning. The toolbox includes clarifying search terms, creating a body of work, exploring ethical teachers, assembling envelopes, organizing themes and data, constructing useful outlines, seeking feedback, and producing writing not just for a grade, but to produce mastery. Strongly influenced by Indigenous methodologies, epistemologies, and pedagogy, Growing a Writing Practice provides an opportunity to decolonize writing

Mite species inhabiting commercial bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) nests in Polish greenhouses

Nests of social insects are usually inhabited by various mite species that feed on pollen, other micro-arthropods or are parasitic. Well-known negative effects of worldwide economic importance are caused by mites parasitizing honeybee colonies. Lately, attention has focused on the endoparasitic mite Locustacarus buchneri that has been found in commercial bumblebees. However, little is known of other mites associated with commercial bumblebee nests. Transportation of commercial bumblebee colonies with unwanted residents may introduce foreign mite species to new localities. In this study, we assessed the prevalence and species composition of mites associated with commercial bumblebee nests and determined if the mites are foreign species for Poland and for Europe. The study was conducted on 37 commercial bumblebee nests from two companies (Dutch and Israeli), originating from two greenhouses in southern Poland, and on 20 commercial bumblebee colonies obtained directly from suppliers. The species composition and abundance of mites inhabiting commercial bumblebee nests were determined. Seven mite species from three families were found in nests after greenhouse exploitation. The predominant mite species was Tyrophagus putrescentiae (Acaridae) that was a 100-fold more numerous than representatives of the family Laelapidae (Hypoaspis marginepilosa, H. hyatti, H. bombicolens). Representatives of Parasitidae (Parasitellus fucorum, P. crinitus, P. ignotus) were least numerous. All identified mite species are common throughout Europe, foreign species were not found. Mites were not detected in nests obtained directly from suppliers. We conclude that probably bumblebee nests are invaded by local mite species during greenhouse exploitation

Effectiveness and Cost Effectiveness of Expanding Harm Reduction and Antiretroviral Therapy in a Mixed HIV Epidemic: A Modeling Analysis for Ukraine

A cost-effectiveness study by Sabina Alistar and colleagues evaluates the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of different levels of investment in methadone, ART, or both, in the mixed HIV epidemic in Ukraine

Improving the assessment of transferable skills in chemistry through evaluation of current practice

The development and assessment of transferable skills acquired by students, such as communication and teamwork, within undergraduate degrees is being increas-ingly emphasised. Many instructors have designed and implemented assessment tasks with the aim to provide students with opportunities to acquire and demon-strate these skills. We have now applied our previously published tool to evaluate whether assessment tasks allow students to demonstrate achievement of these transferable skills. The tool allows detailed evaluation of the alignment of any as-sessment item against the claimed set of learning outcomes. We present here two examples in which use of the tool provides evidence for the level of achievement of transferable skills and a further example of use of the tool to inform curricu-lum design and pedagogy, with the goal of increasing achievement of communi-cation and teamwork bench marks. Implications for practice in assessment design for learning are presented

Calculating Stage Duration Statistics in Multistage Diseases

Many human diseases are characterized by multiple stages of progression. While the typical sequence of disease progression can be identified, there may be large individual variations among patients. Identifying mean stage durations and their variations is critical for statistical hypothesis testing needed to determine if treatment is having a significant effect on the progression, or if a new therapy is showing a delay of progression through a multistage disease. In this paper we focus on two methods for extracting stage duration statistics from longitudinal datasets: an extension of the linear regression technique, and a counting algorithm. Both are non-iterative, non-parametric and computationally cheap methods, which makes them invaluable tools for studying the epidemiology of diseases, with a goal of identifying different patterns of progression by using bioinformatics methodologies. Here we show that the regression method performs well for calculating the mean stage durations under a wide variety of assumptions, however, its generalization to variance calculations fails under realistic assumptions about the data collection procedure. On the other hand, the counting method yields reliable estimations for both means and variances of stage durations. Applications to Alzheimer disease progression are discussed

HIV infection of the male genital tract – consequences for sexual transmission and reproduction

Despite semen being the main vector of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) dissemination worldwide, the origin of the virus in this bodily fluid remains unclear. It was recently shown that several organs of the male genital tract (MGT) are infected by HIV/simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) and likely to contribute to semen viral load during the primary and chronic stages of the infection. These findings are important in helping answer the following questions: (i) does the MGT constitute a viral reservoir responsible for the persistence of virus release into the semen of a subset of HIV-infected men under antiretroviral therapy, who otherwise show an undetectable blood viral load? (ii) What is the aetiology of the semen abnormalities observed in asymptomatic HIV-infected men? (iii) What is the exact nature of the interactions between the spermatozoa, their testicular progenitors and HIV, an important issue in the context of assisted reproductive techniques proposed for HIV-seropositive (HIV+) men? Answers to these questions are crucial for the design of new therapeutic strategies aimed at eradicating the virus from the genital tract of HIV+ men – thus reducing its sexual transmission – and for improving the care of serodiscordant couples wishing to have children. This review summarizes the most recent literature on HIV infection of the male genital tract, discusses the above issues in light of the latest findings and highlights future directions of research

The copper-transporting capacity of ATP7A mutants associated with Menkes disease is ameliorated by COMMD1 as a result of improved protein expression

Menkes disease (MD) is an X-linked recessive disorder characterized by copper deficiency resulting in a diminished function of copper-dependent enzymes. Most MD patients die in early childhood, although mild forms of MD have also been described. A diversity of mutations in the gene encoding of the Golgi-resident copper-transporting P1B-type ATPase ATP7A underlies MD. To elucidate the molecular consequences of the ATP7A mutations, various mutations in ATP7A associated with distinct phenotypes of MD (L873R, C1000R, N1304S, and A1362D) were analyzed in detail. All mutants studied displayed changes in protein expression and intracellular localization parallel to a dramatic decline in their copper-transporting capacity compared to ATP7A the wild-type. We restored these observed defects in ATP7A mutant proteins by culturing the cells at 30°C, which improves the quality of protein folding, similar to that which as has recently has been demonstrated for misfolded ATP7B, a copper transporter homologous to ATP7A. Further, the effect of the canine copper toxicosis protein COMMD1 on ATP7A function was examined as COMMD1 has been shown to regulate the proteolysis of ATP7B proteins. Interestingly, in addition to adjusted growth temperature, binding of COMMD1 partially restored the expression, subcellular localization, and copper-exporting activities of the ATP7A mutants. However, no effect of pharmacological chaperones was observed. Together, the presented data might provide a new direction for developing therapies to improve the residual exporting activity of unstable ATP7A mutant proteins, and suggests a potential role for COMMD1 in this process

Immunity against Ixodes scapularis Salivary Proteins Expressed within 24 Hours of Attachment Thwarts Tick Feeding and Impairs Borrelia Transmission

In North America, the black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis, an obligate haematophagus arthropod, is a vector of several human pathogens including Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme disease agent. In this report, we show that the tick salivary gland transcriptome and proteome is dynamic and changes during the process of engorgement. We demonstrate, using a guinea pig model of I. scapularis feeding and B. burgdorferi transmission, that immunity directed against salivary proteins expressed in the first 24 h of tick attachment — and not later — is sufficient to evoke all the hallmarks of acquired tick-immunity, to thwart tick feeding and also to impair Borrelia transmission. Defining this subset of proteins will promote a mechanistic understanding of novel I. scapularis proteins critical for the initiation of tick feeding and for Borrelia transmission

Setting the stage: host invasion by HIV.

For more than two decades, HIV has infected millions of people worldwide each year through mucosal transmission. Our knowledge of how HIV secures a foothold at both the molecular and cellular levels has been expanded by recent investigations that have applied new technologies and used improved techniques to isolate ex vivo human tissue and generate in vitro cellular models, as well as more relevant in vivo animal challenge systems. Here, we review the current concepts of the immediate events that follow viral exposure at genital mucosal sites where most documented transmissions occur. Furthermore, we discuss the gaps in our knowledge that are relevant to future studies, which will shape strategies for effective HIV prevention