Legitimacy and the TRIPS Agreement

TRIPS, legitimacy, World Trade Organization

Korea, the Pharmaceutical Industry and Non-Commercial Use in the TRIPS Agreement

In 2002, a number of associations requested the Korean Patent Office to issue a compulsory license for the manufacture of a drug under the Korean patent provision which permits the issue of compulsory licensing for public non-commercial use. This provision in the Korean patent act was introduced in 1995 ostensibly to comply with Article 31 of the TRIPS Agreement which permits the issue of compulsory licenses without prior consultations with the patent holder. In a change of strategy, the objection to the issue of a compulsory license for the drug, Gleevec, was filed not by the patent holder or by PhRMA, the association and lobby group of the pharmaceutical industry, but by certain individuals claiming to have legal expertise, and sympathizers of the pharmaceutical industry. The objection raised was based on the concept of legitimate expectation, a concept not applicable in the case of the TRIPS Agreement. The objections raised do not appear to be supported by a legal argument and appear to be arbitrary in nature. In addition, they appear to reflect PhRMA’s aims of curtailing the flexibility inherent in the TRIPS Agreement.Korea, pharmaceutical industry, TRIPS, non-commercial use, patents

Dependable Computing on Inexact Hardware through Anomaly Detection.

Reliability of transistors is on the decline as transistors continue to shrink in size. Aggressive voltage scaling is making the problem even worse. Scaled-down transistors are more susceptible to transient faults as well as permanent in-field hardware failures. In order to continue to reap the benefits of technology scaling, it has become imperative to tackle the challenges risen due to the decreasing reliability of devices for the mainstream commodity market. Along with the worsening reliability, achieving energy efficiency and performance improvement by scaling is increasingly providing diminishing marginal returns. More than any other time in history, the semiconductor industry faces the crossroad of unreliability and the need to improve energy efficiency. These challenges of technology scaling can be tackled by categorizing the target applications in the following two categories: traditional applications that have relatively strict correctness requirement on outputs and emerging class of soft applications, from various domains such as multimedia, machine learning, and computer vision, that are inherently inaccuracy tolerant to a certain degree. Traditional applications can be protected against hardware failures by low-cost detection and protection methods while soft applications can trade off quality of outputs to achieve better performance or energy efficiency. For traditional applications, I propose an efficient, software-only application analysis and transformation solution to detect data and control flow transient faults. The intelligence of the data flow solution lies in the use of dynamic application information such as control flow, memory and value profiling. The control flow protection technique achieves its efficiency by simplifying signature calculations in each basic block and by performing checking at a coarse-grain level. For soft applications, I develop a quality control technique. The quality control technique employs continuous, light-weight checkers to ensure that the approximation is controlled and application output is acceptable. Overall, I show that the use of low-cost checkers to produce dependable results on commodity systems---constructed from inexact hardware components---is efficient and practical.PhDComputer Science and EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113341/1/dskhudia_1.pd

A Comparative Study of Banking in China and India, Nonperforming Loans and the Level Playing Field

This paper compares the operative performances of the banking institutions in China and India, taking into account the contentious issue of institutional differences in banking sectors in these two economies, reflected in the generation of non-performing loans. The study also examines the issue of the use of banks to provide countervailable subsidies to exporting organizations. Our results show that the efficiency differences between banks in these two countries can be directly related to their institutional differences.Technical efficiency; Non-performing loans; Subsidies.

Efficient soft error protection for commodity embedded microprocessors using profile information

Successive generations of processors use smaller transistors in the quest to make more powerful computing systems. It has been previ-ously studied that smaller transistors make processors more suscep-tible to soft errors (transient faults caused by high energy particle strikes). Such errors can result in unexpected behavior and incorrect results. With smaller and cheaper transistors becoming pervasive in mainstream computing, it is necessary to protect these devices against soft errors; an increasing rate of faults necessitates the protection of applications running on commodity processors against soft errors. The existing methods of protecting against such faults generally have high area or performance overheads and thus are not directly applicable in the embedded design space. In order to protect against soft errors, the detection of these errors is a necessary first step so that a recovery can be triggered. To solve the problem of detecting soft errors cheaply, we propose a profiling-based software-only application analysis and transformation solution. The goal is to develop a low cost solution which can be de-ployed for off-the-shelf embedded processors. The solution works by intelligently duplicating instructions that are likely to affect the pro-gram output, and comparing results between original and duplicated instructions. The intelligence of our solution is garnered through the use of control flow, memory dependence, and value profiling to un-derstand and exploit the common-case behavior of applications. Our solution is able to achieve 92 % fault coverage with a 20 % instruction overhead. This represents a 41 % lower performance overhead than the best prior approaches with approximately the same fault coverage

A nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) based assay for sensitive detection of latent Trypanosoma evansi infection in water buffaloes

A nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR)-based assay was developed and evaluated for rapid detection of latent and cryptic cases of Trypanosoma evansi in buffaloes. Four oligonucleotide primers (TE1, TE2, TE3 and TE4), selected from nuclear repetitive gene of T. evansi, were designed and used for PCR amplifications. The first amplification, using a pair of outer primers TE1 and TE2, produced a 821– bp primary PCR product from T. evansi DNA. The second amplification, using nested (internal) pair of primers TE3 and TE4, produced a 270–bp PCR product. The nested primers TE3 and TE4 increased the sensitivity of the PCR assay and as little as 10 fg of T. evansi DNA (equivalent to a single copy of the putative gene of the parasite) was amplified and visualized onto ethidium bromide-stained agarose gels. Amplification products were not detected when the PCR-based assay was applied to DNA from other blood parasites including Thieleria annulata and Babesia bigemina. The described nPCR-based assay provides a valuable tool to study the epidemiology of T. evansi infection in buffaloes and other susceptible animal populations

A cross-sectional study to unravel the cryptic epidemiology of bovine tropical theileriosis by comparing four traditional and molecular techniques in water buffaloes

A comparison of 4 techniques, viz. blood smear examination, lymph node examination, PCR on blood and PCR on lymph node aspirate for the accurate and sensitive diagnosis of cryptic cases of BTT in water buffaloes, was made. These tests were laboratory standardized and later validated on 85 field samples of suspected bubaline hosts. Keeping blood smear examination as a gold standard for detecting actual number of confirmed positive cases, PCR on blood was 100% sensitive and 88.6% specific. When blood PCR was kept as standard, the lymph node biopsy and lymph node PCR were 90 and 86.96% sensitive along with 77.33 and 90.32% specific, respectively, in detecting theileriosis from suspected samples. The described PCR-based assay provides a valuable tool to study the epidemiology of BTT in buffaloes and some vital data regarding epidemiology of theileriosis in water buffaloes from semi arid parts of India was generated

PCR based unraveling of the cryptic epizootiology of bubaline theileriosis targeting the merozoite surface antigen gene

Lower parasitemia often skips the conventional microscopic and serological techniques from detecting latent, cryptic and chronic carrier states of bovine tropical theileriosis infection in buffalo hosts. A PCR was laboratory standardized and later validated on 80 field samples of suspected bubaline (Bubalis bubalis) hosts. Oligonucleotide primers (TBR F/R), selected from the gene encoding the 30-kDa major Theileria annulata merozoite surface antigen were custom designed and used for PCR amplifications. The sensitivity and specificity of PCR in relation to blood smear was compared based on kappa value predictions. Keeping blood smear examination as a gold standard for detecting actual number of confirmed positive cases, PCR on blood was 100 % sensitive and 88.6 % specific. The described PCR-based assay provides a valuable tool to study the epidemiology of bovine tropical theileriosis (BTT) in buffaloes and some vital data regarding epidemiology of theileriosis in water buffaloes from semi arid parts of India was generated

Pojavnost otpornosti želučano-crijevnih oblića koza na ivermektin u uzgajalištima na području Mathura u Indiji.

Frequent and indiscriminate use of anthelmintic drugs has led to anthelmintic resistance in animals. Different in vivo and in vitro tests have been employed to detect anthelmintic resistance. Among the in vivo tests, faecal egg count reduction test (FECRT) can best be used to evaluate anthelmintic efficacy in commercial flocks and herds. In the present study, a total 40 animals, aged 12-24 months, were randomly divided into four groups of 10 goats each. All the 40 goats selected had egg counts of more than 500 eggs per gram (epg). Among these, Group I was kept as untreated control, while Groups II, III and IV were treated with fenbandazole at a dosage rate of 5mg/kg body weight orally, levamisole at a dosage rate of 7.5 mg/kg body weight orally and ivermectin at a dosage rate of 0.2 mg/kg body weight by subcutaneous injection, respectively. Faecal samples from the selected animals were collected on day 0 and day 14 post treatment. EPG was determined from each collected faecal sample and data were analyzed statistically. In Groups II, III and IV, a 71.08 percentage reduction in FEC was recorded with a 95% CI of (32.04-81.12), 97.59 with a 95% CI of (98.32-97.96) and 93.97 with a 95% CI of (91.15-96.80) respectively. Coprocultures of each group identified Haemonchus spp. as the predominant parasite, with an occurrence rate of 85%, followed by Trichostrongylus spp.(7%), Oesophagostomum spp. (5%), Bunostomum spp. (2%) and Strongyloides spp. (1%). The results revealed that gastro intestinal nematodes were found to be resistant to fenbendazole (Group II), but susceptible to Levamisole (Group III), while they were suspected to be resistant to ivermectin (Group IV). This seems to be the first documentation of ivermectin induced anthelmintic resistance against gastro intestinal helminths in goats in the Indian subcontinent.Česta i neopravdana upotreba antihelmintika dovela je do pojave otpornosti parazita životinja. Ta se otpornost može dokazati različitim testovima in vivo i in vitro. Od testova in vivo za određivanju antihelmintičkog učinka u komercijalnih se stada dobrim pokazao test određivanja smanjenja broja jajašaca. U ovom je istraživanju ukupno 40 koza u dobi od 12 do 24 mjeseca bilo podijeljeno u četiri skupine po 10 koza. Svaka koza imala je više od 500 jajašaca po gramu izmeta. Koze su bile svrstane u kontrolnu skupinu (skupina 1) te skupinu 2 koja je bila peroralno liječena fenbendazolom u dozi od 5 mg/kg tjelesne mase, skupinu 3 peroralno liječenu levamisolom u dozi od 7,5 mg/kg i skupinu 4 koja je bila liječena supkutanom primjenom ivermektina u dozi od 0,2 mg/kg. Uzorci izmeta bili su prikupljeni 0. i 14. dana nakon liječenja. U svakom uzorku određen je broj jajašaca po gramu. U 2. skupini zabilježeno je smanjenje broja jajašaca od 71,08 s 95% CI (32,04-81,12). U 3. skupini zabilježeno je smanjenje od 97,59 s 95% CI (98,32-97,96) dok je u 4. skupini zabilježeno smanjenje od 93,97 s 95% CI (91,15-96,80). Koprokulturom je dokazana prisutnost parazita roda Haemonchus koji je ujedno bio i najčešće dokazan (85%). Osim njega bili su dokazani Trichostrongylus spp. (7%), Oesophagostomum spp. (5%), Bunostomum spp. (2%) i Strongyloides spp. (1%). Rezultati su pokazali da su želučano-crijevni oblići koza otporni na fenbendazol (skupina 2), ali ujedno osjetljivi na levamisol (skupina 3). Postavljena je i sumnja na otpornost želučano-crijevnih oblića na ivermektin (skupina 4). Ovo je pionirsko istraživanje o otpornosti želučano-crijevnih oblića koza na ivermektin na području indijskog potkontinenta

Evaluation of phenotypic markers in local goats from semi arid areas for resistance to natural infection with gastrointestinal nematodes

The present study was designed to investigate the different degrees of genetic resistance and resilience in non-descript goats of semi-arid zone of Mathura to natural infections with gastrointestinal nematodes to introduce future breeding schemes. Animals were found to be naturally infected by Haemonchus spp. (85%) followed by Trichostrongylus spp. (7%), Oesophagostomum spp. (5%), Bunostomum spp. (2%) and Strongyloides spp. (1%). Faecal egg counts and blood samples were collected for the determination of indicator traits such as faecal egg count (FEC), packed cell volume (PCV) and haemoglobin (Hb). The mean EPG, PCV and Haemoglobin (Hb) were 1121.6±175, 34.71±2.2% and 8.3±0.5 g/dl, respectively. Based on EPG alone, goats were divided into 3 groups (2,000) and their EPG values were correlated with Hb and PCV. EPG showed a significant negative correlation with both Hb and PCV (P<0.01)