Strengthening Online Dispute Resolution Justice

This paper adopts a systems-design approach to focus courts and lawyers on the unexamined: how involving lawyers in the design, development and implementation of court-annexed online dispute resolution (ODR) programs, will strengthen their justice outcomes. The phrase “ODR programs” refers to the new menu of processes for dispute resolution and litigation offered online by courts

What Dinosaurs Can Teach Lawyers About How to Avoid Extinction in the ODR Evolution

This paper is a wake-up call for the legal profession: Heed the justice changes that are upon us or risk extinction. Online dispute resolution (hereinafter ODR) is currently being incorporated into U.S and international court systems, re-shaping and re-defining justice as we know it today. Courts and clients, two stakeholders in our justice system, are increasingly receptive to ODR as a viable option to help provide and access justice efficiently and affordably. The legal profession, the third stakeholder in our justice system, however, has been slower to react. As ODR plays an increasingly prominent role in the court system, it will eliminate some of the justice roles currently reserved for lawyers, diminish others, and create new areas of practice. We highlight ODR innovations already in the justice system and project the paths of ODR’s likely expansion. This paper alerts the legal profession and legal education community to take heed of these developments and become active contributors in shaping these justice innovations. Viewing ODR’s entry into the court as an evolution of the justice system, we identify six adaptive skills that will redefine “thinking like a lawyer” and help the legal profession avoid extinction and remain relevant. Some of these are currently marginally addressed in the law school curriculum, others are entirely absent. Law schools, the primary disseminators of legal education, must re align their curriculum with the skills that practice-competent lawyers require to succeed in the ODR-infused justice system

Anisotropy in the helicity modulus of a 3D XY-model: application to YBCO

We present a Monte Carlo study of the helicity moduli of an anisotropic classical three-dimensional (3D) XY-model of YBCO in superconducting state. It is found that both the ab-plane and the c-axis helicity moduli, which are proportional to the inverse square of the corresponding magnetic field penetration depth, vary linearly with temperature at low temperatures. The result for the c-axis helicity modulus is in disagreement with the experiments on high quality samples of YBCO. Thus we conclude that purely classical phase fluctuations of the superconducting order parameter cannot account for the observed c-axis electrodynamics of YBCO.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur

FROM ACCEPTANCE TO OUTCOME: TOWARDS AN INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION

Decades of research on information technology (IT) adoption have resulted in a large number of different models and theories. While the number of theoretical models has significantly increased our knowledge on IT adoption, we lack an integrative view of the different stages of the adoption process. In this paper, we review the primary theories from both the acceptance and post-acceptance stage of IT adoption. In addition, we synthesize the different theories and their constructs in a reference framework for IT adoption. We conceptualize individual IT adoption as a dynamic process, in which use patterns, beliefs, and individual motivations change over time. Our framework provides an end-to-end view of IT adoption, spanning the adoption process from acceptance antecedents to outcomes. Eventually, we suggest opportunities for future research based on the different stages of our framework. We believe that our framework will be helpful to develop more complete and actionable theories, and to provide clarity on the concepts and stages related to IT adoption

Visual census, photographic records and the trial of a video network provide first evidence of the elusive Sicyopterus cynocephalus in Australia

Opportunistic encounters with an elusive large-bodied sicydiine goby in a single plunge pool led us to photograph and deploy three video cameras to detect individuals in that pool. Subsequently, a catchment-wide search indicated that the species, eventually identified as Sicyopterus cynocephalus, was confined to the single pool where it was originally detected. A network of ten video cameras was then deployed to estimate the number of individuals of that species and of a congener, S. lagocephalus, by non-destructive means. This study provides the first record of S. cynocephalus in Australia, and showcases the synergy of active snorkel searches and a remote camera network in counting individuals of two sympatric species of Sicyopterus

Precursors of Cytochrome Oxidase in Cytochrome-Oxidase-Deficient Cells of Neurospora crassa

Three different cell types of Neurospora crassa deficient in cytochrome oxidase were studied: the nuclear mutant cni-1, the cytoplasmic mutant mi-1 and copper-depleted wild-type cells. * 1. The enzyme-deficient cells have retained a functioning mitochondrial protein synthesis. It accounted for 12–16% of the total protein synthesis of the cell. However, the analysis of mitochondrial translation products by gel electrophoresis revealed that different amounts of individual membrane proteins were synthesized. Especially mutant cni-1 produced large amounts of a small molecular weight translation product, which is barely detectable in wild-type. * 2. Mitochondrial preparations of cytochrome-oxidase-deficient cells were examined for precursors of cytochrome oxidase. The presence of polypeptide components of cytochrome oxidase in the mitochondria was established with specific antibodies. On the other hand, no significant amounts of heme a could be extracted. * 3. Radioactively labelled components of cytochrome oxidase were isolated by immunoprecipitation and analysed by gel electrophoresis. All three cell types contained the enzyme components 4–7, which are translated on cytoplasmic ribosomes. The mitochondrially synthesized components 1–3 were present in mi-1 mutant and in copper-depleted wild-type cells. In contrast, components 2 and 3 were not detectable in the nuclear mutant cni-1. Both relative and absolute amounts of these polypeptides in the enzyme-deficient cells were quite different from those in wild-type cells. * 4. The components of cytochrome oxidase found in the enzyme-deficient cells were tightly associated with the mitochondrial membranes. * 5. Processes, which affect and may control the production of enzyme precursors or their assembly to a functional cytochrome oxidase are discussed

Magnetization Jump in a Model for Flux Lattice Melting at Low Magnetic Fields

Using a frustrated XY model on a lattice with open boundary conditions, we numerically study the magnetization change near a flux lattice melting transition at low fields. In both two and three dimensions, we find that the melting transition is followed at a higher temperature by the onset of large dissipation associated with the zero-field XY transition. It is characterized by the proliferation of vortex-antivortex pairs (in 2D) or vortex loops (in 3D). At the upper transition, there is a sharp increase in magnetization, in qualitative agreement with recent local Hall probe experiments.Comment: updated figures and texts. new movies available at http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu:80/~ryu/jj.html. Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Point estimation through Stein's method

In Stein's method, one can characterize probability distributions with differential operators. We use these characterizations to obtain a new class of point estimators for i.i.d.\ observations. These so-called Stein estimators satisfy the desirable classical properties such as consistency and asymptotic normality. As a consequence of the usually simple form of the operator, we obtain explicit estimators in cases where standard methods such as maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) require a numerical procedure to calculate the estimate. In addition, with our approach, one can choose from a large class of test functions which allows to improve significantly on the moment estimator. For several probability laws, we can determine an estimator that shows an asymptotic behaviour close to efficiency. Moreover, we retrieve data-dependent functions that result in asymptotically efficient estimators and give a sequence of explicit Stein estimators that converge to the MLE.Comment: Comments and suggestions most welcom