166 research outputs found
The future of printcrime: Intellectual property, innovation law, and 3D printing
No full textIn a 2006 short story, ‘Printcrime’, Cory Doctorow imagined a dystopian future of contraband 3D printers. In the work, police try to shut down a bootleg operation, which engaged in the 3D printing of intellectual property. In his 2009 novel Makers, Cory Doctorow explored the rise of the maker community, and its do-it-yourself ethic. In an interview about the novel, the author reflected:\ud
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<i>"There has never been a better time to be a maker because finding the people who know how to fix the thing that's broken has never been easier. Finding someone else who has done 80% of what you want to do, and sharing the things you have done with other people, has never been easier. A maker is someone who is of and in the 21st century." </i>\ud
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Rather prophetically, he discussed the prospect of intellectual property conflicts around 3D printing (particularly around copyright infringement and trademark infringement), and future controversies over 3D printing guns. In his 2015 short story, ‘The Man Who Sold the Moon’, Cory Doctorow imagined 3D printing in space. This body of creative work has been an important inspiration for the Maker Movement – but it has also shown a critical engagement with the law, ethics, and public policy associated with 3D printing and additive manufacturing.\ud
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Inspired by such science fiction, there have since been a number of optimistic, utopian manifestos published on the topic of 3D printing and the rise of the Maker Movement. There has been high hopes that the emerging, disruptive technology will be part of a new industrial revolution. The founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, situates 3D printing within the framework of a fourth industrial revolution. He predicted: ‘As current size, cost and speed constraints are progressively overcome, 3D printing will become more pervasive to include integrated electronic components such as circuit boards and even human cells and organs.’ Schwab anticipated that there would be a ‘new generation of self-altering products capable of responding to environmental changes such as heat and humidity.’ Moreover, he expected that ‘this technology could be used in clothing or footwear, as well as in health-related products such as implants designed to adapt to the human body.’ Schwab placed 3D printing alongside autonomous vehicles, advanced robotics, and new material as physical manifestations of larger technological megatrends.\ud
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In this context, this collection provides a sober, critical evaluation of the legal, ethical, and public policy issues in respect of intellectual property, innovation law, and 3D printing. Building upon Mark Lemley’s chapter, ‘IP in a World Without Scarcity,’ it considers the legal opportunities and challenges of the Maker Revolution. It provides both theoretical and empirical insights in respect of 3D printing, intellectual property, innovation, and regulation
Appropriate Economic Space for Transnational Infrastructural Projects: Gateways, Multimodal Corridors, and Special Economic Zones
No full textThis study addresses three questions that arise in Asia when formulating, financing, implementing, and maintaining transnational linkages versus purely domestic connections. Firstly, how is optimal economic space to be defined as a useful starting point? Secondly, how can relevant criteria be developed to define the emerging spatial economy and identify efficient transnational transport networks? Thirdly, what are the main investment opportunities in physical infrastructure that would result in more efficient and effective regional cooperation and integration (making special reference to the potential role of cross-border special economic zones (SEZs) or their equivalents)?asia transnational infrastructure; asia regional cooperation
Development and the G20
No full textThis publication examines what role the G20 can play in international development.
Key findings:
Development is a key component of the G20, but there are concerns over the effectiveness of the current development agenda.
The criticism includes that the development agenda is too diffuse and mostly distant to the G20’s main activities.
But the G20 development agenda has made progress in some important areas, including increasing the resources of the international financial institutions, infrastructure, food security, financial inclusion and reducing the cost of remittances.
However development and global economic issues cannot be treated in isolation; development must be ‘mainstreamed’ and clearly seen as part of the G20’s core agenda.
To the extent that Australia can help strengthen the G20 when it assumes the chair in 2014, and make tangible progress in such areas as - economic growth, financial regulation, trade, financial inclusion, infrastructure and climate change financing – it can make a significant contribution to promoting development and reducing poverty.
Authored by Mike Callaghan AM, Annmaree O’Keeffe AM, Robin Davies, Susan Harris Rimmer , Steve Price-Thomas, Sabina Curatolo, Julia Newton-Howes and Michelle Lettie
Global constitutionalism as Agora: interdisciplinary encounters, cultural recognition and global diversity
No full textAn error was made in the editorial for the previous issue of this journal, Global Constitutionalism 8(1). In the editorial, mistaken reference was made to Aoife and O'Donoghue as the authors of 'Can Global Constitutionalism Be Feminist?' in S Harris Rimmer and K Ogg (eds), Research Handbook on Feminist Engagement with International Law (Edward Elgar 2019). This of course should have referred to Aoife O'Donoghue and Ruth Houghton.</p
Pipe-clamping mattress to stop flowline walking
No full textThermal gradients from a heating front travelling down a flowline at start-up can cause a flowline to walk much like a worm creeps by repeated contractions and expansions of its body. To stop this for the Malampaya flowline, pipe-clamping mattresses (PCMs) were invented, developed, and deployed within a period of 12 months. The objective of this paper is to share the knowledge and experience from this novel but effective solution to mitigate pipeline walking. PCMs provide a cost-effective alternative to rockdump or conventional mattresses to axially restrain a pipeline at a location chosen so that the required restraint capacity is minimized. They are inspired by conventional mattresses and bear some similarity to them, but they are designed so that the weight of the mattress acts to clamp the pipeline with a high leverage. Thus 100% of the weight of the mattress is effective in generating axial friction with the seabed. This solution can be applied at any point along the line (chosen to minimize the required resistance) without requiring flanges or collars on the pipeline. From the most recent survey results 15 PCMs with a dry weight of around 9 tons per PCM, plus 7 tons for the logmat installed over every PCM appear to be effective to stop the walking of the Malampaya flowline. This performance is as expected from extensive analysis (FE and otherwise) to reproduce the observed walking behavior prior to restraining, to estimate the required restraint capacity, and to estimate the resistance provided by the PCMs. This paper describes the PCM, the clamping forces they generate by leveraging the weight of the PCM and logmats installed over them, and how the friction generated with the soil is estimated from interface shear tests on samples collected from the site, considering cyclic pore pressure generation and dissipation effects. It also briefly covers FE analyses to reproduce the observed walking behavior, and determine the required restraint capacity, the PCM fabrication, installation, and monitoring of the post-installation performance.</p
Impact of chemotherapy on the release and function of extracellular vesicles in the pre-pubertal testis
No full textINTRODUCTION:
Childhood cancer affects nearly 2,000 children in the UK each year and encompasses a range of pathologies. The incidence of childhood cancer is rising, and the peak age of onset occurs between 0 - 4 years old. Despite more children being diagnosed with cancer year after year, advances in diagnostics and therapeutics mean five-year survivorship is over 80% and rising. This means that approximately 1 in 500 young adults in the UK today is a survivor of childhood cancer.
Rising incidence coupled with increasing survivorship means there is a growing population of childhood cancer survivors with unmet health needs secondary to the unwanted off-target effects of cancer treatment. One such treatment modality is chemotherapy, particularly cisplatin, which is used in a range of childhood and adult cancers.
One known impact of cisplatin treatment in boys is reduced fertility, as it damages the spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) niche within the testis. This niche is essential for future fertility as these SSCs will differentiate into sperm following the onset of puberty. In post-pubertal males, this can be somewhat mitigated by the use of sperm cryopreservation for future fertility treatment. However, in pre-pubertal males, there are currently no viable fertility preservation options. As such, there is a need to reduce the impact of cisplatin-mediated damage within the testis. One unexplored area is how cisplatin alters intercellular communication in the testis: specifically, how it impacts the release of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and what the impact of these EVs have on other cell populations in the testis and how this may impact fertility.
EVs are small lipid-bound structures released by all cells within the body and are a method of cell-to-cell communication. They mediate their effects on recipient cells through the delivery of cargoes and interaction with cell surface receptor ligands. The cargoes of EVs are numerous and include RNA, DNA, lipids, proteins, metabolites, and organelles. Cargo loading within EVs is a dynamic process and is influenced by the state of the parent cell with cargoes capable of being loaded at a greater magnitude than identified free within the cell of origin, suggestive of a highly regulated process. Little is known about the release of EVs within the testis, and what is known is focused on the adult testis.
I hypothesise that cisplatin alters EVs in the testis, and these EVs negatively impact the remaining SSCs and their supporting somatic Sertoli cells.
METHODS:
Human SSCs and Sertoli cells are challenging to culture. Mouse cell lines were used as surrogates including GC1-spg cells (mouse type B spermatogonia) and TM4 cells (mouse pre-pubertal Sertoli). Cells were cultured in EV-depleted cell culture media and treated with cisplatin at a range of doses. The EVs released by these cells were then isolated from cell culture media using size exclusion chromatography.
EV characterisation from GC1-spg and TM4 cells was undertaken, comparing those released by cisplatin-treated cells and controls. Change in EV number was quantified using nanoparticle tracking analysis and impact on treatment-naïve recipient cells was assessed using in vivo cell imaging and detection of cleaved caspase-3 to identify apoptotic cells. EV uptake and movement within target cells were examined using super-resolution microscopy. Individual EVs were assessed for common EV surface markers CD9, CD63 and CD81 using dSTORM imaging and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) while bulk assessment of EVs for another common EV marker, TSG-101, was undertaken using Western blotting.
Assessment of EV release and impact of cisplatin-induced EVs on tissues were assessed using human fetal testis tissues as they represent a surrogate model for human pre-pubertal testis. Tissues were obtained from fetuses between 13 and 18 weeks gestation and cultured using a hanging drop culture system established in our laboratory previously.
Incubation of cisplatin-derived and control EVs were undertaken for eight days and immunofluorescence was undertaken to quantify Sertoli cell number and the number of apoptotic cells. EV release from human fetal testis tissues in response to cisplatin treatment was also undertaken, and the number of EVs released from these tissues was characterised.
Analysis of the protein cargoes of TM4 EVs was undertaken using mass spectrometry to compare EVs released by cells treated with cisplatin and control EVs. A focused assessment of pathways involved in apoptosis and reproduction was undertaken.
RESULTS:
EV size assessed using NTA fell within the 50-250 nm range expected to be classified as small EVs and confirmed using TEM EV imaging for both GC1 and TM4 cells. dSTORM imaging of single EVs for CD9, CD63 and CD81 demonstrated EVs shared some of these markers, but not all EVs were positive for these tetraspanins. Bulk assessment of EVs for TSG-101 identified both GC1 and TM4 EVs expressed this marker.
Mouse Type-B spermatogonia (GC1) and Sertoli (TM4) cells treated with cisplatin release approximately twice as many EVs as control cells, (GC1, 7.2x108 / mL vs 16.4x108 / mL, p=0.0002; TM4, 2.8x108 / mL vs 6.5x108 / mL, p=0.0001). EVs released by cisplatin-treated cells were taken up at a higher rate by treatment-naïve cells, compared to control EVs, when assessed using the IncucyteZOOM system, with GC1 cisplatin-derived EVs being taken up 5.2 x compared to control EVs, p=0.007, and TM4 cisplatin-derived EVs being taken up 4.9 x compared to control EVs, p=0.006. However, this difference was not observed when using a different methodology to quantify individual EVs within cells.
Once internalised, tracking individual EV movements within the cell demonstrated peri-nuclear localisation in both TM4 and GC1 cells. We identified EVs released by cisplatin-treated TM4 cells induced a higher rate (2.4 x increase) of apoptosis in treatment-naïve TM4 cells as compared to control EVs, p=0.007. Increasing the concentration of cisplatin-derived TM4 EVs did not lead to a dose-response effect but did continue to show a significant increase in apoptotic cells.
When cisplatin-derived EVs from TM4 cells were incubated with treatment-naïve GC1 cells, they resulted in lower rates of apoptosis vs control EVs (0.6x the rate of apoptosis, p
Human fetal testis tissues treated with cisplatin did release EVs. However, there was no significant difference in the number of EVs released between cisplatin-treated and control tissue. TM4 cisplatin-derived EVs, which induced apoptosis in treatment naïve TM4 cells, were incubated with human fetal testis tissues. However, immunofluorescence did not reveal any significant increase in apoptosis or reduction in Sertoli cell number compared to tissues incubated with control EVs
Gossip we can trust: Defamation law and non-fiction
No full textDrawing on two case studies, this article considers the allegation of a disgruntled author: ’Defamation was framed to protect the reputations of 19th century gentlemen hypocrites'. The first case study considers the litigation over Bob Ellis' unreliable political memoir, ’Goodbye Jerusalem', published by Random House. The second case study focuses upon the litigation over the allegation by Media Watch that Richard Carleton had plagarised a documentary entitled ’Cry from the Grave'. The article considers the meaning of defamatory imputations, the range of defences, and the available remedies. It highlights the competing arguments over the protection of reputation and privacy, artistic expression, and the freedom of speech. This article concludes that defamation law should foster ’gossip we can trust'
Intellectual Property and Biotechnology: Biological Inventions
No full textThis book documents and evaluates the dramatic expansion of intellectual property law to accommodate various forms of biotechnology from micro-organisms, plants, and animals to human genes and stem cells. It makes a unique theoretical contribution to the controversial public debate over the commercialization of biological inventions.\ud
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The author also considers the contradictions between the Supreme Court of Canada rulings in respect of the Harvard oncomouse, and genetically modified canola. He explores law, policy, and practice in both Australia and New Zealand in respect to gene patents and non-coding DNA. This study charts the rebellion against the European Union Biotechnology Directive – particularly in respect of Myriad Genetics’ BRCA1 and BRCA2 patents, and stem cell patent applications. The book also considers whether patent law will accommodate frontier technologies – such as bioinformatics, haplotype mapping, proteomics, pharmacogenomics, and nanotechnology.\ud
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Intellectual Property and Biotechnology will be of prime interest to lawyers and patent attorneys, scientists and researchers, business managers and technology transfer specialists
Do the maths: Bill McKibben calls for divestment
No full textIn June 2013, author, activist and academic Bill McKibben is visiting Australia and New Zealand as part of the Do the Maths tour. He has been discussing the [carbon bubble]((http://www.carbontracker.org/carbonbubble), fossil fuels, climate change, civil disobedience, and how we can get away from investing in coal..
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