Avoiding Negligence and Profusion: The failure of the Joint-Stock form in the Anglo-Indian Tea Trade, 1840-1870

In the 19th century, firms operating in the Anglo-Indian tea trade were organised using a variety ownership forms including the partnership, joint-stock and a combination of the two known as the Managing agency. Faced with both an increasing need for fixed capital and high agency costs caused by the distance between owners and managers, the firms adapted and increasingly adopted the hybrid managing agency model to overcome these problems. Using new data from Calcutta and Bengal Commercial Registers and detailed case studies of the Assam Company and Gillanders, Arbuthnot and Co, this paper demonstrates that British entrepreneurs did not see the choice of ownership as a dichotomy or firm boundaries as fixed, but instead innovatively drew on the strengths of different forms of ownership to compete and grow successfully.

English Trade Mark Law in the Eighteenth Century: Blanchard v Hill Revisited - Another 'Case of Monopolies'?

The decision of Lord Hardwicke LC in Blanchard v Hill in 1742 is the earliest reported case on the equitable jurisdiction to grant injunctive relief against trade mark piracy. The ambiguous manner in which the case was reported led to the decision being interpreted as either the basis of equitable jurisdiction or a denial of jurisdiction. This article seeks to establish the background to the case, what actually happened, and the immediate impact of the decision. The scene is set, however, in a parallel symbolic universe – heraldry – because in 1740, the officers of arms were confronted with a trade mark case.

The inactivation of bovine cathepsin B by novel N-chloro-acetyl-dipeptides. Application of the Houghten 'tea bag' methodology to inhibitor synthesis

In this study, a series of N-chloro-acetylated dipeptides were synthesised by the application of Houghten's methodology of multiple analog peptide syntheses. The peptides, all of which contain a C-terminal free acid, were tested as inactivators of bovine cathepsin B, in an attempt at exploiting the known and, amongst the cysteine proteinases, unique carboxy dipeptidyl peptidase activity of the protease. We have succeeded in obtaining a number of effective inactivators, the most potent of which-chloroacetyl-Leu-Leu-OH, inactivates the enzyme with an apparent second-order rate constant of 3.8 x 10(4) M-1 min(-1). In contrast, the esterified analog, chloroacetyl-Leu-Leu-OMe, inactivates the enzyme some three orders of magnitude less efficiently, lending credence to our thesis that a free carboxylic acid moiety is an important determinant for inhibitor effectiveness. This preliminary study has highlighted a number of interesting features about the specificity requirements of the bovine proteinase and we believe that our approach has great potential for the rapid delineation of the subsite specificities of cathepsin B-like proteases from various species. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Between the devil and the deep blue sea: Nationality, power and symbolic trade-offs among evangelical Protestants in contemporary Northern Ireland

National identity is symbolically complex configuration, with shifts of emphasis and reprioritisations of content negotiated in contexts of power. This paper shows how they occur in one post-conflict situation - Northern Ireland - among some of the most extreme of national actors - evangelical Protestants. In-depth interviews reveal quite radical shifts in the content of their British identity and in their understanding of and relation to the Irish state, with implications for their future politics. The implications for understanding ethno-religious nationalism, nationality shifts and the future of Northern Ireland are drawn out.

In vitro activity of tea-tree oil against clinical skin isolates of meticillin-resistant and -sensitive Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci growing planktonically and as biofilms

The susceptibility of Staphylococcus aureus [meticillin-resistant (MRSA) and meticillin-sensitive (MSSA)] and coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), which respectively form part of the transient and commensal skin flora, to tea-tree oil (TTO) was compared using broth microdilution and quantitative in vitro time-kill test methods. MRSA and MSSA isolates were significantly less susceptible than CoNS isolates, as measured by both MIC and minimum bactericidal concentration. A significant decrease in the mean viable count of all isolates in comparison with the control was seen at each time interval in time-kill assays. However, the only significant difference in the overall mean log(10) reduction in viable count between the groups of isolates was between CoNS and MSSA at 3 h, with CoNS isolates demonstrating a significantly lower mean reduction. To provide a better simulation of in vivo conditions on the skin, where bacteria are reported to grow as microcolonies encased in glycocalyx, the bactericidal activity of TTO against isolates grown as biofilms was also compared. Biofilms formed by MSSA and MRSA isolates were completely eradicated following exposure to 5 % TTO for 1 h. In contrast, of the biofilms formed by the nine CoNS isolates tested, only five were completely killed, although a reduction in viable count was apparent for the other four isolates. These results suggest that TTO exerts a greater bactericidal activity against biofilm-grown MRSA and MSSA isolates than against some biofilm-grown CoNS isolates.

The United States and trade disputes in the World Trade Organization: Hegemony constrained or confirmed?

Does the World Trade Organization function to reinforce American dominance (or hegemony) of the world economy? We examine this question via an analysis of trade disputes involving the United States. This allows us to assess whether the US does better than other countries in this judicialised forum: and in so doing enhance the competitive prospects of their firms. The results are equivocal. The United States does best in the early phases of a dispute, where political power is important. It does less well as the process develops.

Individual trade-offs between nutrition and risk of interspecific transmission of disease by grazing: cows, badger latrines and bovine tuberculosis

1. We examine whether various measures of herbivore current physiological state (age, breeding and immune status) and genetic potential can be used as indicators of exposure to and risk from disease. We use dairy cattle and the risks of tuberculosis (TB) transmission posed to them by pasture contaminated with badger excreta (via the fecal-oral route) as a model system to address our aim.