Special and Differential Treatments provisions in the TRIPs negotiations

Legal context: This article reviews the current status of World Trade Organization(WTO) negotiations on Special and Differential Treatments (S&DT)of developing countries in TRIPs, referred to here as the agreementon compulsory licensing. Key points: The main thrust of the article is that, although the negotiationshave reached equilibrium, there are still some open questionswhich may prove problematic in the future. Practical significance: The most important remaining question to be borne in mind bypractitioners is how the results reached might be incorporatedin TRIPs and made permanent, this impacting future pratice.     

Anomie at public organizations: How can the quality of work life help?

Will enhancing the quality of work life impact the reduction of anomic behaviors at work in public sector organizations? To answer this question, we examined the impact of three structural, managerial, and social dimensions of the quality of work life, including the employees' anomie behaviors at the workplace. A cross‐sectional survey data were collected from 250 employees working in the public sector organizations located in the Kerman Province, (southeast) Iran. Our findings support the negative effects that the three dimensions of quality of work life have on employees' anomic behaviors. The results of this study highlighted the importance that the quality of work life has on reducing unethical and immoral behavior among employees in public organizations.     

Vulnerability to Multi-Dimensional Poverty: An Empirical Comparison of Alternative Measurement Approaches

This paper investigates whether different measures of ex-post poverty and ex-ante vulnerability to poverty provide consistent estimates of poverty and vulnerability to poverty across households. Moreover, if there is some heterogeneity in the identification of households as poor and vulnerable, it investigates the degree of mismatch between measures? The ex-post monetary poverty (MP) and multidimensional poverty (MDP) measures are used to identify poor households. Likewise, the ex-ante vulnerability to monetary poverty (VMP) and vulnerability to multidimensional poverty (VMDP) measures are used to identify vulnerable households. Using a large household survey data-set of about 90,000 households from the Punjab province of Pakistan, we find that most of the vulnerable households are accurately identified by the ex-ante measures of vulnerability to poverty. However, the ex-post measures of poverty identify different households as poor. Our results show that 18 percent households experiencing MDP are not captured by the one-dimensional measure of MP. The important implication of this study is that the choice of measures does matter in ex-post poverty identification, but not as much in the identification of ex-ante vulnerability to poverty.     

Detection of a primer-binding site polymorphism for the STR locus D16S539 using the Powerplex 1.1 system and validation of a degenerate primer to correct for the polymorphism

Quality assurance samples submitted from the NCSBI as part of a contract with TBTG to outsource DNA Database samples showed unexpected discrepancies for the locus D16S539 when all other loci yielded identical results. Discrepancies observed included allele drop out and an imbalance in sister alleles with samples returned from TBTG. This led to a comprehensive review of the technical procedures used between the two laboratories to determine the cause of the discrepancies noted for the locus D16S539, since both laboratories were using the PowerPlex 1.1 typing kit from the Promega Corporation. The NCSBI and the TBTG utilize different extraction methods (organic extraction vs. FTA) and amplification conditions (AmpliTaq vs AmpliTaq Gold), respectively, so the exact cause of discrepancy observed was not immediately apparent. Experiments at the NCSBI associated the observed allele drop out and the imbalance of the sister alleles with the use of AmpliTaq Gold and a hot start procedure. Sequencing data revealed that a point mutation resides on the D16S539 primer-binding site that reaches polymorphic levels in African-American populations. This led to the development of a degenerate primer by the Promega Corporation to detect "missing" alleles when AmpliTaq Gold is used. The degenerate primer was then thoroughly tested to show its efficacy in detecting the "true" D16S539 profile when used.     

Women's Capabilities and the Right to Education in Bangladesh

The World Bank promotes women's education because it is an input into human capital. In the capabilities approach, education is a force that enables women to have expanded choices. Using data from in-depth interviews conducted in two villages in 1996 and 2000, we examine how rural Bangladeshis perceive women's education and to what extent those perceptions concur with the World Bank's instrumentalist view and with the capabilities approach. Parents educate their daughters because women's education is valued in the marriage market, and marriage is the best way to secure their daughters' well-being. Schooling has also enhanced women's capabilities by increasing their earning potential.     

Editor's Introduction: The Amherst Seminar and the Everyday Life of the Law

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique -