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Safety-net patients' socioeconomic barriers interact with limited digital and health literacies to produce a "knowledge gap" that impacts the delivery of healthcare via telehealth technologies. Six focus groups (2 African- American and 4 Latino) were conducted with patients who received teleretinal screening in a U.S. urban safety-net setting. Focus groups were analyzed using a modified grounded theory methodology. Findings indicate that patients' knowledge gap is primarily produced at three points during the delivery of care: (1) exacerbation of patients' pre-existing personal barriers in the clinical setting; (2) encounters with technology during screening; and (3) lack of follow up after the visit. This knowledge gap produces confusion, potentially limiting patients' perceptions of care and their ability to manage their own care. It may be ameliorated through delivery of patient education focused on both disease pathology and specific role of telehealth technologies in disease management.

The viability of gold open access publishing models into the future will depend, in part, on the attitudes of authors toward open access (OA). In a survey of academics at four major research universities in North America, we examine academic authors' opinions and behaviors toward gold OA. The study allows us to see what academics know and perceive about open access models, their current behavior in regard to publishing in OA, and possible future behavior. In particular, we gauge current attitudes to examine the perceived likelihood of various outcomes in an all-open access publishing scenario. We also survey how much authors at these types of universities would be willing to pay for article processing charges (APCs) from different sources. Although the loudest voices may often be heard, in reality there is a wide range of attitudes and behaviors toward publishing. Understanding the range of perceptions, opinions, and behaviors among academics toward gold OA is important for academic librarians who must examine how OA serves their research communities, to prepare for an OA future, and to understand how OA impacts the library's role.

In 2003 the highly profitable transnational commercial yoga community was unsettled when the controversial Los Angeles-based yogi, Bikram Choudhury, launched a barrage of legal actions against fellow hot yoga teachers. At the heart of these disputes were Bikram's copyright and trade mark claims to a popular yoga choreography performed in a heated room. These disputes quickly attracted attention from an array of stakeholders including Indian civil society, governmental figures, spiritual ascetics, and open source advocates who presumed that such proprietary claims were not only novel, but also preposterous and inherently at odds with yogic values. This article seeks to interrogate this presumption and, in doing so, trace a longer history through which transnational yogic flows have always-already been haunted by notions of spiritual and economic exchange. Moreover, while the Bikram disputes may have brought proprietary claims in yoga to public attention, this article will demonstrate two things. Firstly, that intellectual property claims of various kinds have been applied to expressions of the practice in the United States since at least 1895. Secondly, despite more than 15 years of active litigation involving Bikram's claims, certain aspects of the intellectual property issues surrounding his hot yoga practice remain unsettled. In tracing the historical roots of yoga-as-property, the article illustrates how popular understandings and legal logics move in and out of sync with one another and that proprietary claims, once introduced, become virtually inescapable – a spectral presence that continues to trouble the practice as it moves forward into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an introduction to a special issue of the journal Pólemos on the topic of the spectral nature of intellectual property. The issue is based on a roundtable discussion organized by the International Research Collaboration on Critical Interdisciplinary Approaches to Intellectual Property. The contributors to the issue come from various disciplines, including anthropology, history, communication, and law. The articles in the issue explore different aspects of intellectual property, such as its historical origins, its impact on cultural politics and society, and its role in shaping scientific innovation. The issue aims to shed light on the diverse forms that intellectual property takes and its connections to governance, power, and capitalist property relations. It also examines the effects of intellectual property claims-making in value-laden histories, including those influenced by colonialism and capitalism. The issue draws on scholarship from socio-legal studies, cultural studies, science and technology studies, law and humanities research, and the concept of spectrality as a metaphor for understanding the past, present, and future. The contributors analyze how intellectual property is constantly being made and unmade by legal professionals and lay actors in various domains. The issue includes articles on topics such as the use of intellectual property in American religion, the relationship between yoga and proprietary logics, the inventor's certificate in the Soviet Union, the role of patent law in scientific innovation, the plant variety rights system in New Zealand, and authorship claims in information studies and cancer research. The issue aims to contribute to scholarship on different forms of [Extracted from the article]

The author discusses the issues related to offshore drilling disasters in light of section 1115 of the U.S. Seaman's Manslaughter Act. Topics discussed include the role of the Act in implementing liability on individual for his negligence in offshore drilling, judicial opinion on the case United States v. Kaluza, and the laws for defining maritime and territorial sea jurisdiction in the U.S.

The article offers information about the judgment of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court in the case Bunn v. Oldendorff Carriers GmbH & Co. related to ship-owners liability under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA). Topics discussed include lawsuit filed for compensation of injuries caused under LHWCA, judicial opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals on the judgment made by the circuit court for dispute resolution and role of the LHWCA in regulating the seaworthiness warranties.

Differential access to everyday technology and healthcare amongst safety net patients is associated with low technological and health literacies, respectively. These low rates of literacy produce a complex patient 'knowledge gap' that influences the effectiveness of telehealth technologies. To understand this 'knowledge gap', six focus groups (2 African-American and 4 Latino) were conducted with patients who received teleretinal screenings in U.S. urban safety-net settings. Findings indicate that patients' 'knowledge gap' is primarily produced at three points: (1) when patients' preexisting personal barriers to care became exacerbated in the clinical setting; (2) through encounters with technology during screening; and (3) in doctor-patient follow-up. This 'knowledge gap' can produce confusion and fear, potentially affecting patients' confidence in quality of care and limiting their disease management ability. In rethinking the digital divide to include the consequences of this knowledge gap faced by patients in the clinical setting, we suggest that patient education focus on both their disease and specific telehealth technologies deployed in care delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safety-net patients' socioeconomic barriers interact with limited digital and health literacies to produce a "knowledge gap" that impacts the delivery of healthcare via telehealth technologies. Six focus groups (2 African- American and 4 Latino) were conducted with patients who received teleretinal screening in a U.S. urban safety-net setting. Focus groups were analyzed using a modified grounded theory methodology. Findings indicate that patients' knowledge gap is primarily produced at three points during the delivery of care: (1) exacerbation of patients' pre-existing personal barriers in the clinical setting; (2) encounters with technology during screening; and (3) lack of follow up after the visit. This knowledge gap produces confusion, potentially limiting patients' perceptions of care and their ability to manage their own care. It may be ameliorated through delivery of patient education focused on both disease pathology and specific role of telehealth technologies in disease management.

Diabetic retinopathy is a leading cause of blindness in US adults. This paper presents initial results of a teleretinal screening project for diabetic retinopathy involving six Los Angeles safety net clinics. A total of 1,943 patients have been screened for diabetic retinopathy by three ophthalmologist readers, with 416 receiving a recommendation for referral to specialty care. Of the cases recommended for referral, 24 had proliferative diabetic retinopathy, 62 had severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR), 60 had moderate NPDR, 19 had mild NPDR, 138 had a non-diabetic condition, such as glaucoma, 63 had clinically significant macular edema without retinopathy and 50 had non-gradable images. Between 3% and 12.2% of retinal images taken at the clinics were assessed by readers as inadequate for any interpretation. The study shows the feasibility and challenges of teleretinal screening for diabetic retinopathy in urban areas facing specialist shortages and an overburdened, under-resourced safety net care-delivery system.

Telemedicine holds great promise for increased access to specialty care services for safety net clinic patients. However, the adoption of these technologies is not a seamless transition for clinicians working in resource-poor settings. Previous research has analyzed workflow issues that arise in primary care settings when adopting telehealth tools but has not examined the unique workflow challenges facing specialists who provide assessments to safety net clinics. Findings are presented from a case study that employed qualitative methodologies as part of an assessment of a teleretinal screening program in Los Angeles urban safety net clinics. The program utilizes external ophthalmologists to perform retinal readings. The case study provides insights into how difficulties that arise in reader workflow are resolved and identifies unique factors requiring consideration when highly trained specialists perform teleretinal readings. The discussion outlines important issues to address when developing telehealth workflow protocols for the safety net, specifically, and their broader applicability in telemedicine.