Patenting and US academic research in the 20th century: The world before and after Bayh-Dole

The dramatic growth of patenting and licensing of publicly funded research by American research universities in the closing quarter of the 20th century has stimulated some of the highest-profile debates in science and technology policy today. The issue of what aspects of academic research should be public - and what private - lies at the heart of each of these debates. The movement of academic scientists into commercialisation of discoveries and inventions has been extolled by some as a new model of academic research, one which facilitates economic and social returns from universities. At the same time, this trend has been criticised by others as representing a socially inefficient ‘privatisation’ of academic research and as a threat to the ethos of science itself. This paper places these debates in historical context, with a review of changes in American universities’ patenting policies, procedures and practices throughout the 20th century, an assessment of the logic underlying the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, and an overview of its effects on economic returns from university research.     

A Microarray Immunoassay for Serum Thyrotropin and Thyroglobulin Using Antibodies Immobilized on Track-Etched Membranes

Serum thyroglobulin (Tg) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) measurements have evolved as important analytes for monitoring the prognosis of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer, post-thyroidectomy. Individual analyte immunoassay is the current practice in clinical pathology, but the simultaneous assay for all relevant analytes for a given disease, can reduce assay costs, improve patient compliance and give the clinician more information for an unequivocal diagnosis. Microarray immunoassay (MI) can achieve this goal and, hence, we have developed and validated a immuno-radiometric MI for quantitation of serum TSH and Tg by using highly micro-porous polycarbonate (PC) track-etched membranes (TEM) to immobilize the monoclonal anti-TSH and polyclonal anti-Tg antibodies in ~1 mm diameter spots. Non-competitive immunoassays were performed using mixture of ¹²⁵I labeled monoclonal anti-TSH and anti-Tg antibodies. Phosphorimager was used to quantify the bound radioactivity. TSH and Tg were detected with detection limit of 0.07 µIU/ml and 0.13 ng/ml respectively, which is lower than the clinically required cut-off level. The assay showed: acceptable intra-assay precision within 20 % and recovery in the range of 76–111.2 %. MI compared well with the established immunoradiometric assay (IRMA) with r = 0.98, p < 0.01 (n = 41). No cross-reactivity was seen between the immobilized antibodies. Although two hormones are addressed in this report, MI using PC TEM and isotopic/non-isotopic tracers has the potential for highly automated multiplexed analysis.     

Mechanism of Antidiabetic Action of Compound GII Purified from Fenugreek (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Trigonella foenum graecum</Emphasis>) Seeds

To study the mechanism of action of water soluble compound GII purified from fenugreek (Trigonella foenum graecum) seeds which was shown earlier to have antidiabetic effect in the subdiabetic, moderately and severely diabetic rabbits. In rabbits (1–1.5 kg bw) diabetes was induced by intravenous injection of 80 mg/kg bw of alloxan. They were fed with GII at a dose of 50 mg/kg bw daily once in the morning for 15 days in the subdiabetic and moderately diabetic and 30 days in the severely diabetic rabbits. Serum total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), LDL + VLDL cholesterol [(LDL + VLDL)C], HDL cholesterol [(HDL)C], total tissue lipids, glycogen and enzymes of carbohydrate metabolism (glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, polyol pathway) hexokinase, glucokinase, pyruvate kinase, malic enzyme, glucose-6-phosphatase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, aldose reductase and sorbitol dehydrogenase and antioxidant enzymes glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and superoxide dismutase were estimated. Liver and kidney function parameters were also estimated. Treatment with GII for 15 days in the subdiabetic and moderately diabetic rabbits and for 30 days in the severely diabetic rabbits (i) decreased the elevated lipids TC, TG, (LDL + VLDL)C and increased the decreased (HDL)C, (ii) decreased the elevated liver and heart total lipids, TC and TG, (iii) increased the decreased liver and muscle glycogen, (iv) increased the decreased hexokinase, glucokinase, pyruvate kinase, malic enzyme, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, (v) decreased the increased glucose-6-phosphatase, sorbitol dehydrogenase, aldose reductase. Results thus show that treatment with GII compound purified from fenugreek seeds for 15 days in the subdiabetic and moderately diabetic and 30 days in the severely diabetic rabbits corrects the altered serum lipids, tissue lipids, glycogen, enzymes of glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, glycogen metabolism, polyol pathway and antioxidant enzymes. Histopathological abnormalities (fatty infiltration and other cellular changes) seen in the pancreas, liver, heart and kidneys were repaired after treatment with GII. In fact partially damaged pancreas was repaired. Liver and kidney function test results were normal in the GII treated animals indicating that GII treatment is safe and free from any side effects.     

Evaluation of Oxidative Stress and hsCRP in Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome in a Tertiary Care Hospital

PCOS is a heterogeneous endocrine disorder with diverse clinical presentation. Oxidative stress plays a key role in the pathophysiology of this disease. Serumhigh sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP), a marker of chronic low grade inflammation, is indicative of future development of cardiovascular disease. Our aim is to evaluate the oxidant status and hsCRP levels in PCOS. The study involved 61 cases and 61 controls in the age group of 18–40 years diagnosed with PCOS. Erythrocyte malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), serum hsCRP, gonadotrophins, thyroid stimulating hormone, prolactin, glycemic status and lipid profile were estimated. Erythrocyte MDA (p < 0.001), SOD (p = 0.007) and serum hsCRP (p < 0.001) were significantly elevated in PCOS patients than controls. Oxidative stress is present in women with PCOS along with elevated hsCRP.     

Intersample optimization in a sampled-data control system using the redundancy of a dual-rate system

The present study discusses the design method for controlling a single-input/single-output linear time-invariant dual-rate system, where the sampling interval of the plant output is longer than the holding interval of the control input. In such a dual-rate system, the intersample output might oscillate even when the sampled output converges to the reference input in the steady state. In a conventional ripple-free method, an existing control law is extended by introducing an exogenous variable, which is independent of the discrete-time sampled response, and the exogenous variable is designed for eliminating the steady-state intersample ripples without changing the existing sampled response. In another method, since a control law is designed such that the intersample performance is optimized, the intersample ripples are eliminated in the transient as well as steady states. However, the preservation of an existing sampled response is not taken into account. The present study proposes a new design method for eliminating the intersample ripples subject to the existing sampled response. In the proposed method, the continuous-time index is optimized subject to the existing discrete-time response. As a result, the intersample ripples are eliminated in the transient as well as steady states, and the existing discrete-time sampled response is maintained. The proposed method is compared to the conventional dual-rate design methods in numerical examples, and the effectiveness of the method is demonstrated.