The Role of International Rules in Blockchain-Based Cross-Border Commercial Disputes

[excerpt] The concept of online dispute resolution (ODR) is not new. 1 But, with the advent of Web 3.0, the distributed web that facilitates pseudonymous and cross-border transactions via blockchain\u27s distributed ledger technology, 2 the idea of, and pressing need for, appropriate dispute resolution models for blockchain-based disputes to support this novel system of distributed consensus and trust of which blockchain proponents boast, is a primary concern in rapid development. 3 The common goal of each project is to utilize smart contracts to facilitate superior, quicker[,] and less expensive proceedings by eliminating so many of the tedious and protracted trappings of traditional arbitral proceedings, such as the sending and receiving of documents via courier. , Despite myriad approaches, all emerging blockchain-based dispute resolution services (BDR solutions) generally seek to bridge the divide between automated performance mechanisms, like smart contracts, and the human judgment traditionally required to settle legal disputes.5 How our existing legal frameworks must develop to ensure that smart contracts 6 facilitate, rather than frustrate, the parties\u27 intent is a critically important question to ask as the blockchain stack\u27s infrastructure and application layers are being built and, ultimately, scaled. Indeed, interest is high in the race to create alternative dispute resolution mechanisms to resolve disputes arising from blockchain-based commercial transactions that, due to the transnational, borderless, pseudonymous, and distributed nature of blockchain, clearly necessitate international solutions.

Safe Harbor for the Innocent Infringer in the Digital Age

The primary goal of this Article is three-fold: (1) to explore the role of the innocent infringer archetype historically and in the digital age; (2) to highlight the tension between customary and generally accepted online uses and copyright law that compromise efficient use of technology and progress of the digital technologies, the Internet, and society at large; and (3) to offer a legislative fix in the form of safe harbor for direct innocent infringers. Such an exemption seems not only more efficient but also more just in the online environment where unwitting infringement for the average copyright consumer is far easier than ever to commit, extremely difficult to police, and often causes little, if any, cognizable market harm. Safe Harbor was judged one of the best law review articles related to entertainment, publishing and/or the arts published in the 2013-14 academic publishing cycle and selected for inclusion in the 2014 edition of the Entertainment, Publishing and the Arts Handbook, an anthology published annually by Thomson Reuters (West)

In the Title IX Race Toward Gender Equity, The Black Female Athlete is Left to Finish Last: The Lack of Access for the “Invisible Woman

Although each of us is defined by race and gender, those of us who are neither white nor male often experience invisibility as a result of our dual subordinate status.... Black women have been disproportionately located at the lower end of the economic hierarchy and, therefore, have been unable to afford private golf, swimming, or tennis lessons. Overt racial discrimination prevented black women from gaining access to the sports participated in by white women. To the extent that the main thrust of solutions to gender inequity and a lack of adherence to Title IX mandates has been the addition of opportunities in the country club sports or those sports not traditionally accessible to Black women, we lose yet again

Introductions

An introduction to the Symposium and an introduction to Blockchain technology in preparation for the topics of the rest of the symposium

Effects of congenital hearing loss and cochlear implantation on audiovisual speech perception in infants and children

Purpose: Cochlear implantation has recently become available as an intervention strategy for young children with profound hearing impairment. In fact, infants as young as 6 months are now receiving cochlear implants (CIs), and even younger infants are being fitted with hearing aids (HAs). Because early audiovisual experience may be important for normal development of speech perception, it is important to investigate the effects of a period of auditory deprivation and amplification type on multimodal perceptual processes of infants and children. The purpose of this study was to investigate audiovisual perception skills in normal-hearing (NH) infants and children and deaf infants and children with CIs and HAs of similar chronological ages. Methods: We used an Intermodal Preferential Looking Paradigm to present the same woman\u27s face articulating two words ( judge and back ) in temporal synchrony on two sides of a TV monitor, along with an auditory presentation of one of the words. Results: The results showed that NH infants and children spontaneously matched auditory and visual information in spoken words; deaf infants and children with HAs did not integrate the audiovisual information; and deaf infants and children with CIs initially did not initially integrate the audiovisual information but gradually matched the auditory and visual information in spoken words. Conclusions: These results suggest that a period of auditory deprivation affects multimodal perceptual processes that may begin to develop normally after several months of auditory experience

Assessing the Implications of Water Supply Technology on the Sustainability of Rural Water Supply in Dodoma Region, Tanzania

This study assessed sustainability of rural water supply projects in Bahi and Chamwino districts, Dodoma, central Tanzania. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design. In order to study different types of projects two strata were created basing on extraction methods used. A total of 24 projects were surveyed across the study area and 136 respondents were interviewed. Multiple data collection methods such as FGDs and Interviews were used. The collected data were processed and analysed using descriptive analysis method. The study found that there was very limited involvement of the beneficiaries in the decision of the type of affordable and appropriate water supply technologies. Nearly all the respondents denied to have been involved in decision on water supply technology options that would suit their needs. A majority of the surveyed projects were found to be functional; however, the remaining small fraction of 10.3% and 30.4% non functional schemes in Bahi and Chamwino respectively signified that there were some communities that did not have access to safe and clean water supply due to technical challenges caused by the chosen water supply technologies. The study established a very strong negative correlation coefficient (r = -91.99%) between the technology used and sustainability of the project. It was recommended to the external actor side that transparency should be well observed at community level thereby sharing with the beneficiaries on all the technological options, their advantages and disadvantages, and wherever possible to consider and respect technologies in which the communities have experience so as to enhance sustainability of the particular rural water supply projects

Phosphoproteomic studies of smooth muscle contraction: investigation of differential phosphorylation in relaxed/contracted rat aortic smooth muscle tissue using MALDI-TOF MS

Many human disorders are associated with the malfunction of smooth muscle tissue, or are related to the capabilities of its proper function—asthma, glaucoma, renal inefficiency, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. Dysfunctional proteins are frequently implicated as the source of such disorders. As the second highest cause of death in the United States, the epidemic of cardiovascular disease makes the study of smooth muscle of utmost concern. The capabilities of proteomics and mass spectrometry allow the entire proteome complement of a cell or tissue type to be analyzed at once. This investigation employs such techniques in an effort to better understand the mechanisms of signal transduction for the contraction of smooth muscle tissue. The differential phosphorylation of proteins between resting and contracted tissue was targeted, specifically, because phosphorylation is the primary means of communication and activity modification of proteins. Much of what is known about the regulation of signal transduction in smooth muscle contraction is conducted through the activation of myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) and/or myosin light chain phosphatase (MLCP). Protocols of analysis using phosphoproteomic techniques and MALDI-TOF MS were developed for the purposes of this investigation. The localization of the more abundant proteins actin, myosin heavy chain (MHC), and tropomyosin was determined on a 2D gel. Tropomyosin was found to be phosphorylated in phorbol-contracted tissue, indicating that this protein may play a larger role in contractile regulation than originally thought. The function of such thin-filament associated proteins should be investigated more thoroughly. A thorough understanding of contraction in normal tissue will provide the base for which dysfunctions can be compared. Continued improvements in methodology will aid the advancement of this research

Cognitive Influences On Preschoolers’ And Adults’ Eyewitness Memory In Response To Misleading Questions

The present study investigated cognitive influences on the malleability of memory for an eyewitness event, specifically focusing on age, executive function, and divided attention. Preschoolers (3- to 5-year-olds) and adults completed an executive function (EF) battery, witnessed an event either under divided attention (DA) or full attention (FA), following this, participants were asked a series of questions, the majority of which were misleading from the Video Suggestibility Scale for Children. This study supports previous findings that children are more suggestible than adults to misleading questions. However, there was no influence of EF on suggestibility in either children or adults. Lastly, level of attention was related to suggestibility in yield 1 scores, where those in the DA condition had higher suggestibility scores than those in the FA condition, supporting previous findings in adult literature and extending these findings to the preschool age