Patenting genes and gene sequences: Analysis of public health implications and the law

At issue is whether or not isolated DNA is patent eligible under the U.S. Patent Law and the implications of that determination on public health. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued patents on DNA since the 1980s, and scientists and researchers have proceeded under that milieu since that time. Today, genetic research and testing related to the human breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 is conducted within the framework of seven patents that were issued to Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah Research Foundation between 1997 and 2000. In 2009, suit was filed on behalf of multiple researchers, professional associations and others to invalidate fifteen of the claims underlying those patents. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which hears patent cases, has invalidated claims for analyzing and comparing isolated DNA but has upheld claims to isolated DNA. The specific issue of whether isolated DNA is patent eligible is now before the Supreme Court, which is expected to decide the case by year's end. In this work, a systematic review was performed to determine the effects of DNA patents on various stakeholders and, ultimately, on public health; and to provide a legal analysis of the patent eligibility of isolated DNA and the likely outcome of the Supreme Court's decision. ^ A literature review was conducted to: first, identify principle stakeholders with an interest in patent eligibility of the isolated DNA sequences BRCA1 and BRCA2; and second, determine the effect of the case on those stakeholders. Published reports that addressed gene patents, the Myriad litigation, and implications of gene patents on stakeholders were included. Next, an in-depth legal analysis of the patent eligibility of isolated DNA and methods for analyzing it was performed pursuant to accepted methods of legal research and analysis based on legal briefs, federal law and jurisprudence, scholarly works and standard practice legal analysis. ^ Biotechnology, biomedical and clinical research, access to health care, and personalized medicine were identified as the principle stakeholders and interests herein. Many experts believe that the patent eligibility of isolated DNA will not greatly affect the biotechnology industry insofar as genetic testing is concerned; unlike for therapeutics, genetic testing does not require tremendous resources or lead time. The actual impact on biomedical researchers is uncertain, with greater impact expected for researchers whose work is intended for commercial purposes (versus basic science). The impact on access to health care has been surprisingly difficult to assess; while invalidating gene patents might be expected to decrease the cost of genetic testing and improve access to more laboratories and physicians' offices that provide the test, a 2010 study on the actual impact was inconclusive. As for personalized medicine, many experts believe that the availability of personalized medicine is ultimately a public policy issue for Congress, not the courts. ^ Based on the legal analysis performed in this work, this writer believes the Supreme Court is likely to invalidate patents on isolated DNA whose sequences are found in nature, because these gene sequences are a basic tool of scientific and technologic work and patents on isolated DNA would unduly inhibit their future use. Patents on complementary DNA (cDNA) are expected to stand, however, based on the human intervention required to craft cDNA and the product's distinction from the DNA found in nature. ^ In the end, the solution as to how to address gene patents may lie not in jurisprudence but in a fundamental change in business practices to provide expanded licenses to better address the interests of the several stakeholders. ^

Assessing the landscape value of public works: validation of the method in the lowlands of the middle section of the Tajo river (Spain)

This paper proposes a method of landscape characterisation and assessment of public works associated with fluvial landscapes, which is validated in the middle section of the Tajo River. In this method, a set of criteria is identified that unifies various characteristics of the landscape associated to the infrastructures. A specific weight is then assigned to each criterion in such a way as to produce a semi-quantitative value ranging from a minimum value of 0 to a maximum value of 10. Taken together, these criteria enable us to describe and assess the value of the public works selected for study, in this case helping us to evaluate the sections of the River Tajo analysed in our study area. Accordingly, the value of all the infrastructures associated to a stretch of the river covering several hundred kilometres was determined and after dividing this stretch into sections, they were compared under equivalent conditions to provide a hierarchal ranking.

Application of Public Private Partnerships to the Spanish Airport System

The current deficit situation of the Spanish airport system suggests the need to manage this in a more efficient and profitable way. One of the possible options is through private management and being able to do this through Public Private Partnerships (PPP). This study analyzes the situation of the sector and its economic importance and the different possibilities for introducing private management in a public company, specifying the situation in the case of airports, presenting the advantages and disadvantages of these possibilities, and aiming at results obtained in other places where it has been applied. It is proposed that the ideal model for the introduction of private management would be through PPP models tailored to each airport, but having common characteristics according to the group they belong to. Finally, we observe that not all airports are commercially attractive, so that the PPP concept does not apply to all of them. In some cases even the operability itself is not viable at all, and that should be considered separately in order to avoid creating a private monopoly while trying to enhance competition among them.

Offices for Delegation of Public Health, Almería (Spain) 2002

OFFICES FOR DELEGATION OF PUBLIC HEALTH, ALMERÍA (SPAIN) 2002

New York: the revitalization of public space. Recent interventions in the Manhattan grid

La reticula de Nueva York ha sido un formato de nuevos planteamientos de "hacer ciudad" desde hace dos siglos. Esta ultima decada ha suspuesto un periodo fructifero para el espacio publico neoyorkino bajo la administracion de Michael Bloomerg. Esta revitalizacion no habria podido ser posible sin la reactivacion de factores de espacio publico que ya existian: la reticula, la legislacion publica y el rol del ciudadano. El ciudadano juega un papel fundamental en la ciudad, ya que es usuario, critico y promotor de espacio publico. Sin embargo, en ocasiones no es evidente para quien o quienes estan pensados los nuevos espacios publicos en la ciudad. Desde esta perspectiva, podemos identificar diferentes usuarios en la ciudad y analizar formulas recientes de espacio publico para cada uno de ellos: el vecino, el ciudadano, y el visitante. En palabras de Jane Jacobs: " las ciudades tienen la capacidad de proveer algo para todo el mundo, solo porque, y solo cuando, han sido proyectadas por todo el mundo".

El comportamiento del viento en la morfología urbana y su incidencia en el uso estancial del espacio público, Punta Arenas, Chile = The behavior of wind in urban morphology and its incidence in the resting use of public space, Punta Arenas, Chile

El comportamiento del viento en la morfología urbana y su incidencia en el uso estancial del espacio público, Punta Arenas, Chile = The behavior of wind in urban morphology and its incidence in the resting use of public space, Punta Arenas, Chile

Outraged spatialities: the production of public scale in the #spanishrevolution

The spatial processes deployed by the 15-M movement in Spain include elements of social change that exceed the limits of conventional politics. Located at a liminal level, these processes operate in the often unnoticed realm of the micro-politics of urban everyday life and the regimes of place that regulate it, providing new criteria for understanding sociospatial and urban phenomena. This article shows how public space, its representations and the spatialities associated with them have served as a support for, have determined and, ultimately, have been reshaped and transformed by the Spanish “indignados” (outraged), in particular in the city and the metropolitan area of Madrid. Drawing on a series of theoretical approaches to the articulation of recent revolts, the deployment of a prefigurative politics and the occupation of public space, I will give an experience-based account of the spatial constitution and effects of these connections in and around Madrid’s Puerta del Sol. As a whole, the indignados’ occupations and actions provide urban theory with conceptual and practical tools to imagine alternative forms of collective commitment in the production of spaces of hope for social progress and generalized self-management.

Assessing priorities for allocation of donor liver grafts: survey of public and clinicians

Objectives: To compare the priorities of the general public, family doctors, and gastroenterologists in allocating donor livers to potential recipients of liver allograft.

Earthquake prediction: the interaction of public policy and science.

Earthquake prediction research has searched for both informational phenomena, those that provide information about earthquake hazards useful to the public, and causal phenomena, causally related to the physical processes governing failure on a fault, to improve our understanding of those processes. Neither informational nor causal phenomena are a subset of the other. I propose a classification of potential earthquake predictors of informational, causal, and predictive phenomena, where predictors are causal phenomena that provide more accurate assessments of the earthquake hazard than can be gotten from assuming a random distribution. Achieving higher, more accurate probabilities than a random distribution requires much more information about the precursor than just that it is causally related to the earthquake.

The Power of the Placement of Public Sculpture

The Power of the Placement of Public Sculpture explores the aesthetic effects public sculpture has on the environment around it. The work presented includes a discussion of case studies in select American and international communities. Relevance is brought to the topic through the documentation of the placement of a fabricated eight-foot avocado sculpture displayed on the University of Denver campus. Reflection on the experience exposes additional questions and demonstrates the importance of the placement of a public sculpture.

Influence of Religious Institutions in the Creation and Implementation of Public Policy: The Case of Roman Catholic Argentina and Secular Uruguay

The strong presence of religious institutions in Latin America, especially the Roman Catholic Church, and their participation in the creation and implementation of public policy within a sovereign state can be counter-productive for the social development and progress of that specific country. Argentina and Uruguay and the social controversy of social issues of abortion and same-sex marriage are used as examples to establish the accuracy of the above statement. Historical, statistical, and legislative information about both topics in both countries show that the political power that the Roman Catholic Church has in the region is more an outdated influence than a reality, and the principle of secularization appears to be the most stabilizing philosophy for modern nations.