PDF Killed the Copier Star: Modernizing the Access to Sources of Proof Factor in a 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) Transfer Analysis

With digital solutions to document storage, non-physical sources of evidence will become increasingly relevant for different types of legal actions. For patent proceedings, where evidence is often electronic, the need for a clearly defined approach to analyzing physical and electronic evidence has appeared within the first private factor of a 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a) transfer analysis. The evidentiary factor evaluating non-witness evidence—the access to sources of proof factor or first private factor—was interpreted by the Fifth Circuit when faced with weighing electronic evidence in favor, or against, potential transfer venues. Fifth Circuit precedent—relied upon in other circuit court opinions and the standard for when writs of mandamus reach the Federal Circuit—determined the access to proof factor is still relevant to modern transfer analyzes despite the ease of transfer some digital media provide. The convenience of digital evidence has led some district courts to request an amended approach for the first private factor analysis. In order to maintain the relevance of the access to sources of proof factor, the treatment of electronic evidence needs to be updated to reflect the expanding digital landscape. With a tailored approach recognizing the distinctions and ease of transfer for certain types of evidence, the tension between district court holdings, that the Gilbert factor is superfluous, and the circuit courts, holding that the factor is still relevant for transfer analysis, can be resolved. Sources of proof and the mediums they appear on will constantly change, and the law governing discretionary transfers should be prepared to adapt to those changes. This Comment seeks to provide a recommendation on how that can be achieved

Mackenzie Dockendorf Honors Portfolio

Mackenzie Dockendorf\u27s honors portfolio captured in January 2019

La irrupción de la Alianza del Pacífico ¿Cambio en la agenda de la política exterior chilena?

En este artículo se examina la agenda de la política exterior chilena a la luz de los programas de gobierno de las candidaturas presidenciales en 2009 y 2013. En términos generales, la agenda de este sector se ha caracterizado por un alto nivel de estabilidad. No obstante, con la llegada de la derecha al poder en 2010 adquirieron prominencia algunos asuntos de la agenda por sobre otros. En ese contexto se produjo el ingreso de Chile a la Alianza del Pacífico. Hasta ese punto, los cambios de gobierno no habían afectado el equilibrio entre los componentes centrales de la política exterior. Con todo, la participación de Chile en esa instancia de integración no formaba parte de los programas de gobierno ni de la derecha ni de la centro izquierda. Es decir, no constituía una alternativa que fuese promovida por una comunidad de política pública, como se sigue de la teoría de formación de la agenda de J. Kingdon (1995). Ahora bien, el perfil de la Alianza del Pacífico y la reacción que generó en el ambiente político la entrada a la misma proveen de plausibilidad a la hipótesis de que el cambio de coalición gobernante generó una “ventana política” para que el país se sumara a la iniciativa señalada. Con todo, como se concluye, el programa de gobierno de Michelle Bachelet en 2013 no proponía un giro latinoamericanista, sino que más bien una reposición de los ejes de la agenda de la política exterior precedente a la administración de Piñera.This paper takes a look at the foreign policy agenda of Chile in the context of the government action plan of candidates in 2009 and 2013. In broad terms, the agenda of this sector has been characterized by a high level of stability. However, with the right coming to power in 2010, certain issues in the agenda took precedence over others. It was in this context that Chile entered the Pacific Alliance. Until then, the change from one administration to another had not affected the balance between the core components of foreign policy. All in all, Chile’s involvement in this integration initiative was not a part of the government action plan of the right or the center-left. That is to say, it was not an alternative promoted by a public political community, as would follow from J. Kingdon’s agenda-setting theory (1995). The profile of the Pacific Alliance and the reaction caused by the country’s involvement with it in the political arena give credibility to the hypothesis that the change in the ruling faction generated a “polical window” for the country to join this initiative. All in all, as we conclude, Michelle Bachelet’s government action plan in 2013 was not aligned with Latin Americanist currents, but rather aimed at repositioning the axes of the foreign policy agenda that was in place before the Piñera administration

Web page support for use of slang terms during Internet searching in sexual and reproductive health

This study evaluates the use of slang terms to locate reproductive and sexual health information on the Internet. Many users looking for health information, including adolescents and low literacy populations, may not use technical terms as search terms when searching the Internet. This study aimed to discover the type of sites retrieved using slang terms for condom in English and Spanish. The slang terms in each language were searched in the Google search engine. The English terms retrieved 3.5 percent relevant sites and the Spanish terms retrieved 19.5 percent relevant sites. Clearly, the reproductive and sexual health sites aiming to provide users with accurate health information are not reaching users that may not have knowledge of technical terms and instead use slang terms to search. These sites should re-evaluate the terms they include in their text and/or metadata in order to serve a more diverse community of users

When do business groups embrace outside lobbying in trade policy? The case of the CPTPP in Chile.

Literature shows that business interest groups have fewer incentives to embrace outside lobbying in trade policy. This article proposes an alternative explanation. As we discuss, special economic interests are more likely to adopt a specific subtype of outside lobbying (press, media appearances and op-eds) when policymakers are not responsible to them, and their long-term interests associated with a model of open trade are potentially threatened. We test our argument with the case of Chile and the long debate around the CPTPP ratification process. Our results support the hypothesis: businesses have a greater probability of media appearances, publishing op-eds and the like in comparison to other lobbies, such as labor and single-issue groups against the treaty. However, the effect is conditional to salience: the subtype of outside lobbying from business groups is more likely to be observed as the distance to the social outbursts of October 2019 increases.

Real rainbow options in commodity applications : valuing multi-factor output options under uncertainty

This thesis focuses on the valuation of real options when there is flexibility given by the choice between two risky outputs. We develop models to value these rainbow options and to determine optimal operating and investment policies. These models are studied in the context of commodity applications because output flexibility is particularly relevant in volatile commodity markets. We provide insights into the behaviour and sensitivities of option values and operating policies and discuss implications for decision-making.In the early stages of real options theory, research centred on basic options with closed-form solutions, modelling single uncertainty in most cases. The challenge is now to incorporate more complexities in the models in order to further bridge the gap between theoretical models and reality, thereby promoting the widespread application of real options theory in corporate finance. The new option models developed in this thesis are organised in three self-contained research papers to address specific research problems. The first research paper studies an asset with flexibility to continuously choose the best of two risky commodity outputs by switching between them. We develop quasi-analytical and numerical lattice solutions for this real option model, taking into account operating and switching costs. An empirical application to a flexible fertilizer plant shows that the value of flexibility between the two outputs, ammonia and urea, exceeds the required additional investment cost (given the parameter values) despite the high correlation between the commodities. Implications are derived for investors and policy makers. The real asset value is mainly driven by non-stationary commodity prices in combination with constant operating costs. In the second research paper, we study an asset with flexibility to continuously choose the best of two co-integrated commodities. The uncertainty in two commodity prices is reduced to only one source of uncertainty by modelling the spread, which is mean-reverting in the case of co-integration. Our quasi-analytical solution distinguishes between different risk and discount factors which are shown to be particularly relevant in the context of mean-reversion. In an empirical application, a polyethylene plant is valued and it is found that the value of flexibility is reduced by strong mean-reversion in the spread between the commodities. Hence, operating flexibility is higher when the commodities are less co-integrated. In the third research paper, we develop real option models to value European sequential rainbow options, first on the best of two correlated stochastic assets and then on the spread between two stochastic co-integrated assets. We present finite difference and Monte Carlo simulation results for both, and additionally a closed-form solution for the latter. Interestingly, the sequential option value is negatively correlated with the volatility of one of the two assets in the special case when the volatility of that asset is low and the option is in-the-money. Also, the sequential option on the mean-reverting spread does not necessarily increase in value with a longer time to maturity.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo