Integrity, attribution, and exploitation : contractual and normative moral rights protection in open licensing

Over the last twenty years, the use of open content licenses has become increasingly and surprisingly popular. The use of such licences challenges the traditional incentive-based model of exclusive rights under copyright. Instead of providing a means to charge for the use of particular works, what seems important is mitigating against potential personal harm to the author and, in some cases, preventing non-consensual commercial exploitation. It is interesting in this context to observe the primacy of what are essentially moral rights over the exclusionary economic rights. The core elements of common open content licences map somewhat closely to continental conceptions of the moral rights of authorship. Most obviously, almost all free software and free culture licences require attribution of authorship. More interestingly, there is a tension between social norms developed in free software communities and those that have emerged in the creative arts over integrity and commercial exploitation. For programmers interested in free software, licence terms that prohibit commercial use or modification are almost completely inconsistent with the ideological and utilitarian values that underpin the movement. For those in the creative industries, on the other hand, non-commercial terms and, to a lesser extent, terms that prohibit all but verbatim distribution continue to play an extremely important role in the sharing of copyright material. While prohibitions on commercial use often serve an economic imperative, there is also a certain personal interest for many creators in avoiding harmful exploitation of their expression – an interest that has sometimes been recognised as forming a component of the moral right of integrity. One particular continental moral right – the right of withdrawal – is present neither in Australian law or in any of the common open content licences. Despite some marked differences, both free software and free culture participants are using contractual methods to articulate the norms of permissible sharing. Legal enforcement is rare and often prohibitively expensive, and the various communities accordingly rely upon shared understandings of acceptable behaviour. The licences that are commonly used represent a formalised expression of these community norms and provide the theoretically enforceable legal baseline that lends them legitimacy. The core terms of these licences are designed primarily to alleviate risk in sharing and minimise transaction costs in sharing and using copyright expression. Importantly, however, the range of available licences reflect different optional balances in the norms of creating and sharing material. Generally, it is possible to see that, stemming particularly from the US, open content licences are fundamentally important in providing a set of normatively accepted copyright balances that reflect the interests sought to be protected through moral rights regimes. As the cost of creation, distribution, storage, and processing of expression continues to fall towards zero, there are increasing incentives to adopt open content licences to facilitate wide distribution and reuse of creative expression. Thinking of these protocols not only as reducing transaction costs but of setting normative principles of participation assists in conceptualising the role of open content licences and the continuing tensions that permeate modern copyright law.

Studies on the surface properties of biodegradable polymer carriers in respiratory delivery of drug from Dry Powder Inhaler formulations

Dry Powder Inhaler (DPI) technology has a significant impact in the treatment of various respiratory disorders. DPI formulations consist of a micronized drug (<5ìm) blended with an inert coarse carrier, for which lactose is widely used to date. DPIs are one of the inhalation devices which are used to target the delivery of drugs to the lungs. Drug delivery via DPI formulations is influenced by the physico-chemical characteristics of lactose particles such as size, shape, surface roughness and adhesional forces. Commercially available DPI formulations, which utilise lactose as the carrier, are not efficient in delivering drug to the lungs. The reasons for this are the surface morphology, adhesional properties and surface roughness of lactose. Despite several attempts to modify lactose, the maximum efficient drug delivery to the lungs remains limited; hence, exploring suitable alternative carriers for DPIs is of paramount importance. Therefore, the objective of the project was to study the performance of spherical polymer microparticles as drug carriers and the factors controlling their performance. This study aimed to use biodegradable polymer microspheres as alternative carriers to lactose in DPIs for achieving efficient drug delivery into the lungs. This project focused on fabricating biodegradable polymer microparticles with reproducible surface morphology and particle shape. The surface characteristics of polymeric carriers and the adhesional forces between the drug and carrier particles were investigated in order to gain a better understanding of their influence on drug dispersion. For this purpose, two biodegradable polymers- polycaprolactone (PCL) and poly (DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) were used as the carriers to deliver the anti-asthmatic drug - Salbutamol Sulphate (SS). The first study conducted for this dissertation was the aerosolization of SS from mixtures of SS and PCL or PLGA microparticles. The microparticles were fabricated using an emulsion technique and were characterized by laser diffraction for particle size analysis, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) for surface morphology and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) to obtain surface elemental composition. The dispersion of the drug from the DPI formulations was determined by using a Twin Stage Impinger (TSI). The Fine particle Fraction (FPF) of SS from powder mixtures was analyzed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). It was found that the drug did not detach from the surface of PCL microspheres. To overcome this, the microspheres were coated with anti-adherent agents such as magnesium stearate and leucine to improve the dispersion of the drug from the carrier surfaces. It was found that coating the PCL microspheres helped in significantly improving the FPF of SS from the PCL surface. These results were in contrast to the PLGA microspheres which readily allowed detachment of the SS from their surface. However, coating PLGA microspheres with antiadherent agents did not further improve the detachment of the drug from the surface. Thus, the first part of the study demonstrated that the surface-coated PCL microspheres and PLGA microspheres can be potential alternatives to lactose as carriers in DPI formulations; however, there was no significant improvement in the FPF of the drug. The second part of the research studied the influence of the size of the microspheres on the FPF of the drug. For this purpose, four different sizes (25 ìm, 48 ìm, 100 ìm and 150 ìm) of the PCL and PLGA microspheres were fabricated and characterized. The dispersion of the drug from microspheres of different sizes was determined. It was found that as the size of the carrier increased there was a significant increase in the FPF of SS. This study suggested that the size of the carrier plays an important role in the dispersion of the drug from the carrier surface. Subsequent experiments in the third part of the dissertation studied the surface properties of the polymeric carrier. The adhesion forces existing between the drug particle and the polymer surfaces, and the surface roughness of the carriers were quantified using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). A direct correlation between adhesion forces and dispersion of the drug from the carrier surface was observed suggesting that adhesion forces play an important role in determining the detachment potential of the drug from the carrier surface. However, no direct relationship between the surface roughness of the PCL or PLGA carrier and the FPF of the drug was observed. In conclusion, the body of work presented in this dissertation demonstrated the potential of coated PCL microspheres and PLGA microspheres to be used in DPI formulations as an alternative carrier to sugar based carriers. The study also emphasized the role of the size of the carrier particles and the forces of interaction prevailing between the drug and the carrier particle surface on the aerosolization performances of the drug.

Sharing environmental data : the role of an information policy framework and copyright licensing

Advances in information and communication technologies have brought about an information revolution, leading to fundamental changes in the way that information is collected or generated, shared and distributed. The importance of establishing systems in which research findings can be readily made available to and used by other researchers has long been recognized in international scientific collaborations. If the data access principles adopted by international scientific collaborations are to be effectively implemented they must be supported by the national policies and laws in place in the countries in which participating researchers are operating.

Improved treatment of nicotine addiction and emerging pulmonary drug delivery

Nicotine addiction remains the leading cause of death and disease in developed and developing nations and a major cause of mortality around the world. Currently, nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs), bupropion, and varenicline are approved by the regulatory agencies as first-line treatments for nicotine addiction. Emerging evidence indicates that varenicline and bupropion have some therapeutic limitations for treating nicotine addiction with oral route of administration. Thus, continued investigation of innovative drug delivery for nicotine addiction remains a critical priority. This review will discuss some novel strategies and future directions for pulmonary drug delivery, an emerging route of administration for smoking cessation. It is anticipated that the advancement of knowledge on pulmonary drug delivery will provide better management for nicotine addiction and other addictive disorders.

Developing an efficient and reliable dry powder inhaler for pulmonary drug delivery : a review for multidisciplinary researchers

Pulmonary drug delivery is the focus of much research and development because of its great potential to produce maximum therapeutic benefit. Among the available options the dry powder inhaler (DPI) is the preferred device for the treatment of an increasingly diverse number of diseases. However, as drug delivery from a DPI involves a complicated set of physical processes and the integration of drug formulations, device design and patient usage, the engineering development of this medical technology is proving to be a great challenge. Currently there is large range of devices that are either available on the market or under development, however, none exhibit superior clinical efficacy. A major concern is the inter- and intra-patient variability of the drug dosage delivered to the deep lungs. The extent of variability depends on the drug formulation, the device design and the patient’s inhalation profile. This article reviews recent advances in DPI technology and presents the key factors which motivate and constrain the successful engineering of a universal, patient-independent DPI that is capable of efficient, reliable and repeatable drug delivery. A strong emphasis is placed on the physical processes of drug powder aerosolisation, deagglomeration, and dispersion and on the engineering of formulations and inhalers that can optimise these processes.

The experiences of parents and other supervisors in a graduated driver licensing program in Queensland, Australia

Study Aims Describe how parents and other private supervisors have responded to the changes made to the Queensland graduated driver licensing system in mid-2007 Examine differences in the experiences and perceptions of the parents and non-parents Method Combination of convenience and snowball sampling Survey administered by the internet Survey conducted between July 2009 and May 2010 Approximately 15-20 minutes to complete $20 reimbursement for participation

Juggling information policy, rights to information and copyright licensing to enhance the accessibility and reusability of spatial data : the Australian experience

There is still no comprehensive information strategy governing access to and reuse of public sector information, applying on a nationwide basis, across all levels of government – local, state and federal - in Australia. This is the case both for public sector materials generally and for spatial data in particular. Nevertheless, the last five years have seen some significant developments in information policy and practice, the result of which has been a considerable lessening of the barriers that previously acted to impede the accessibility and reusability of a great deal of spatial and other material held by public sector agencies. Much of the impetus for change has come from the spatial community which has for many years been a proponent of the view “that government held information, and in particular spatial information, will play an absolutely critical role in increasing the innovative capacity of this nation.”1 However, the potential of government spatial data to contribute to innovation will remain unfulfilled without reform of policies on access and reuse as well as the pervasive practices of public sector data custodians who have relied on government copyright to justify the imposition of restrictive conditions on its use.

The impact of an enhanced graduated driver licensing program in Queensland

The Queensland graduated driver licensing (GDL) context (post-July 2007) - The experiences of young Learner drivers - Comparison of pre- (‘Original-GDL’) and post-July 2007 (‘Enhanced-GDL’) experiences - Post-July 2007 experiences - GDL-related issues - Other factors in young novice driver safety - Person-related factors - Social factors

The experiences of novices in an enhanced graduated driver licensing program in Queensland, Australia

- Young novice drivers - The Queensland graduated driver licensing (GDL) context - Pre-July 2007 (‘Original-GDL’) - Post-July 2007 (‘Enhanced-GDL’) - Experiences of Learners in Queensland’s enhanced-GDL program - Pre-/post-July 2007 comparison - Post-July 2007 only - Implications - Strengths and limitations

The effect of alcohol and drug consumption on academic performance : a treatment effect evaluation

It is often argued that consumption of alcohol, tobacco and drugs is detrimental to the cognitive abilities of teenagers. In order to disentangle a possible causal effect of these substances use from a self-selection bias, we control for pupils previous performance and for their previous rate of progression applying a DiDiD strategy. Using the NELS 1988 panel dataset, we find that the effects of alcohol and tobacco on test scores disappear once the selection bias is controlled for (this does not preclude long term detrimental effects). However, we find reliable evidence that heavy use of drugs (marijuana and cocaine) has direct detrimental effects on educational achievements. Hence, our results may have significant policy implications.