Access to essential medicines: Public health and international law

Historically, there have been intense conflicts over the ownership and exploitation of pharmaceutical drugs and diagnostic tests dealing with infectious diseases. Throughout the 1980’s, there was much scientific, legal, and ethical debate about which scientific group should be credited with the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus, and the invention of the blood test devised to detect antibodies to the virus. In May 1983, Luc Montagnier, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, and other French scientists from the Pasteur Institute in Paris, published a paper in Science, detailing the discovery of a virus called lymphadenopathy (LAV). A scientific rival, Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute, identified the AIDS virus and published his findings in the May 1984 issue of Science. In May 1985, the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded the American patent for the AIDS blood test to Gallo and the Department of Health and Human Services. In December 1985, the Institut Pasteur sued the Department of Health and Human Services, contending that the French were the first to identify the AIDS virus and to invent the antibody test, and that the American test was dependent upon the French research. In March 1987, an agreement was brokered by President Ronald Reagan and French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, which resulted in the Department of Health and Human Services and the Institut Pasteur sharing the patent rights to the blood test for AIDS. In 1992, the Federal Office of Research Integrity found that Gallo had committed scientific misconduct, by falsely reporting facts in his 1984 scientific paper. A subsequent investigation by the National Institutes of Health, the United States Congress, and the US attorney-general cleared Gallo of any wrongdoing. In 1994, the United States government and French government renegotiated their agreement regarding the AIDS blood test patent, in order to make the distribution of royalties more equitable... The dispute between Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo was not an isolated case of scientific rivalry and patent races. It foreshadowed further patent conflicts over research in respect of HIV/AIDS. Michael Kirby, former Justice of the High Court of Australia diagnosed a clash between two distinct schools of philosophy - ‘scientists of the old school... working by serendipity with free sharing of knowledge and research’, and ‘those of the new school who saw the hope of progress as lying in huge investments in scientific experimentation.’ Indeed, the patent race between Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier has been a precursor to broader trade disputes over access to essential medicines in the 1990s and 2000s. The dispute between Robert Gallo and Luc Montagnier captures in microcosm a number of themes of this book: the fierce competition for intellectual property rights; the clash between sovereign states over access to medicines; the pressing need to defend human rights, particularly the right to health; and the need for new incentives for research and development to combat infectious diseases as both an international and domestic issue.

In Defence of "the Lesser Cousin of History": An Interview with Rohan Wilson

Few branches of postcolonial literature are as contested as the historical fiction of settler societies. This interview with the Australian historical novelist Rohan Wilson, author of The Roving Party (2011) and To Name Those Lost (2014), explores the intersections between truth, accuracy, and existential authenticity in his fictional accounts of nineteenth-century Tasmania. Wilson offers a nuanced yet robust defence of fiction’s role in narrating colonial history. He explains his intentions in writing two linked yet distinctive novels of the frontier—one that focuses on the “Black War” of the 1820s and 1830s, and another that explores how racial violence is refracted by capitalism in subsequent decades.

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10−8). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms.

Genetic studies of body mass index yield new insights for obesity biology

Obesity is heritable and predisposes to many diseases. To understand the genetic basis of obesity better, here we conduct a genome-wide association study and Metabochip meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI), a measure commonly used to define obesity and assess adiposity, in up to 339,224 individuals. This analysis identifies 97 BMI-associated loci (P < 5 × 10−8), 56 of which are novel. Five loci demonstrate clear evidence of several independent association signals, and many loci have significant effects on other metabolic phenotypes. The 97 loci account for ~2.7% of BMI variation, and genome-wide estimates suggest that common variation accounts for >20% of BMI variation. Pathway analyses provide strong support for a role of the central nervous system in obesity susceptibility and implicate new genes and pathways, including those related to synaptic function, glutamate signalling, insulin secretion/action, energy metabolism, lipid biology and adipogenesis.

Unser Haus Am Erlenweg : Weihnachten 1911.

Cloth covered, oversize album featuring photographs of a family home.

A Patchwork of memories 1911-1997

Memoir describes her life in Germany, her decision to leave Germany after the death of her parents, and to work in the United States in 1934. Detailed description of every day life in Germany (after World War I) and in the United States, and later of various travels all over the world. Also mentions her German-Jewish ancestors on her maternal side (great-great-grandparents: Moritz and Fanny Hertz, great-grandmother: Helene Hertz nee Orthenberger), who had a textile business.

Seixas family papers, undated, 1746-1911, 1926, 1939.

The collection contains items relating to individual members of the family as well as the Seixas family in general. Included are papers of the following persons: Isaac Mendes Seixas (1708/9-1780/1), a copy of A voyage to Hudson's--Bay, by Henry Ellis, inscribed with his name on the title page, along with additional inscriptions on the end papers (1748); and a daily prayer book printed in Amsterdam (title page missing), with an inscription on the first page indicating that the book was owned by Seixas in 1758/9, and subsequently by his grandson, Theodore J. Seixas, in 1816/17.

Max Strauss Collection 1911-1935

Documents, medals, and photos pertaining to Max Strauss' service in the German Army before and during World War I:

Horst Rudolf Salzmann Collection 1911-1991

Excerpts from Salzmann's autobiography "Divertimento". Book review in Die Welt (September 1991).

Jälkimaterialismi traditiosidonnaisten varmuuksien hajotessa. Voiko Ronald Inglehartin hiljaista arvovallankumousta selittää refleksiivisen modernisaatioteorian kautta?

Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan Ronald Inglehartin hiljaisen arvovallankumouksen teoriaa refleksiivisen modernisaatioteorian piiristä johdettujen vaihtoehtoisten yhteiskunnallisen epävarmuuden kasvuun liitty-vien selitysmallien kautta. Inglehartin teoria antaa ymmärtää, että modernisaation myötä käynnissä on ollut hiljainen prosessi, jossa aineellisen hyvinvoinnin ja turvallisuuden parissa kasvavat sukupolvet omaksuvat edeltäjiään jälkimaterialistisempia arvoja. Tutkimuksessa johdetaan Inglehartin teorialle kaksi rinnakkaista selitysmallia, jotka perustuvat Ulrich Beckin ja Anthony Giddensin modernisaatioteoretisoin-teihin. Ensimmäisessä mallissa Inglehartin määrittämää jälkimaterialismia pyritään selittämään Giddensin teorian avulla modernisaation myötä tapahtuvan traditioiden purkautumisen myötä yksilötasolla ilmenevän uudenlaisen autonomian kokemisen kautta, jolloin jälkimaterialismin oletetaan olevan yleisempää sellais-ten ihmisten keskuudessa, jotka traditioista irtautuessaan kykenevät onnistuneeseen itsereflektioon. Empiiristä mallinnusta varten koostetaan faktorianalyysillä kaksi Giddensin teoriaan perustuvaa jälkima-terialismia selittävää muuttujaa, joiden välinen yhteisvaikutus on tilastollisen analyysin keskiössä. Toinen malli perustuu Beckin riskiyhteiskuntateoretisointiin ja perustuu pitkälle kehittyneen modernisaa-tion mukanaan tuomien uudenlaisten riskien ja epävarmuuksien kokemiseen ja olettaa, että huolestunei-suus uudenlaisten riskien ja epävarmuuksien suhteen näkyy suurempana materialististen arvojen omak-sumisena. Selitysmalleja testataan empiirisesti ordinaalisella regression- sekä kovarianssianalyysillä World Values Survey 2005:n, European Values Study 2008:n sekä saksalaisen Political Attitudes, Political Participati-on and Voter Conduct in United Germany –surveyn vuosien 1994-2002 aineistoilla. Empiirisen analyysin perusteella kumpaakaan mallia ei kuitenkaan voida näyttää toteen käytettävissä olevilla aineistoilla. Tut-kimuksessa pyritään siten vielä problematisoimaan tutkimusasetelman operationalisointiin liittyviä on-gelmakohtia survey-aineistojen suhteen mahdollisten jatkotutkimuksien kannalta.

QCD with dynamical Wilson fermions. II

We present results for the QCD spectrum and the matrix elements of scalar and axial-vector densities at β=6/g2=5.4, 5.5, 5.6. The lattice update was done using the hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm to include two flavors of dynamical Wilson fermions. We have explored quark masses in the range ms≤mq≤3ms. The results for the spectrum are similar to quenched simulations and mass ratios are consistent with phenomenological heavy-quark models. The results for matrix elements of the scalar density show that the contribution of sea quarks is comparable to that of the valence quarks. This has important implications for the pion-nucleon σ term.