Biological Individuals

The impressive variation amongst biological individuals generates many complexities in addressing the simple-sounding question what is a biological individual? A distinction between evolutionary and physiological individuals is useful in thinking about biological individuals, as is attention to the kinds of groups, such as superorganisms and species, that have sometimes been thought of as biological individuals. More fully understanding the conceptual space that biological individuals occupy also involves considering a range of other concepts, such as life, reproduction, and agency. There has been a focus in some recent discussions by both philosophers and biologists on how evolutionary individuals are created and regulated, as well as continuing work on the evolution of individuality

A Nonparametric Bayesian Approach to Uncovering Rat Hippocampal Population Codes During Spatial Navigation

Rodent hippocampal population codes represent important spatial information about the environment during navigation. Several computational methods have been developed to uncover the neural representation of spatial topology embedded in rodent hippocampal ensemble spike activity. Here we extend our previous work and propose a nonparametric Bayesian approach to infer rat hippocampal population codes during spatial navigation. To tackle the model selection problem, we leverage a nonparametric Bayesian model. Specifically, to analyze rat hippocampal ensemble spiking activity, we apply a hierarchical Dirichlet process-hidden Markov model (HDP-HMM) using two Bayesian inference methods, one based on Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and the other based on variational Bayes (VB). We demonstrate the effectiveness of our Bayesian approaches on recordings from a freely-behaving rat navigating in an open field environment. We find that MCMC-based inference with Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) hyperparameter sampling is flexible and efficient, and outperforms VB and MCMC approaches with hyperparameters set by empirical Bayes

E-Elections: Time for Japan to Embrace Online Campaigning

Asia has embraced the Internet and social media. Japan and South Korea rank among the world’s leaders in technological innovation and Internet penetration. China boasts over 420 million Internet users, and other Asian countries have experienced the widespread acceptance of online technologies. With the rapid ascendency of the Internet and social media, however, Asian countries have sometimes struggled with striking the proper balance between individual rights and the legal regulation of online activities. One prime example of such struggle involves the clash between Japan’s election laws and individual political freedoms. Although Japan generally subscribes to democratic traditions and the principle of limited Internet restriction, its election law effectively prohibits virtually all online campaigning by candidates, political parties, and voters during its official campaigning period. Japan’s election law demands that all political actors forego the low-cost, speedy, and popular communication, information, and political advocacy tools available on the Internet during the most critical time of an election campaign. The election law also restricts voters from engaging in online grassroots activities and fully participating in the political process. In recent years, an increasing number of actors in the Japanese political process have called for the right to freely express themselves in an online environment during all phases of the election process. Notwithstanding, Japan continues to maintain its ban on Internet electioneering. Legal considerations and political realities dictate the complete elimination or partial relaxation of Japan’s stringent restrictions on Internet electioneering. In advocating such change, this article analyzes the competing concerns between Japan’s current election laws and individual political freedoms. Additionally, it examines the relevant legal arguments, cultural considerations, and other factors that support the adoption of online campaigning. It also examines how current laws are generally adequate to address the dangers associated with unrestricted online campaigning

DEMYSTIFYING THE DETERMINATION OF FOREIGN LAW IN U.S. COURTS: OPENING THE DOOR TO A GREATER GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING

With globalization and the proliferation of international commercial interaction, U.S. courts commonly encounter issues governed by the laws of other sovereigns. These encounters arise by virtue of private agreements or choice-of-law rules covering contractual relationships, cross-border conduct, tortuous acts, employment matters, intellectual property rights, and various other legal foundations. Because the substantive law applied in an international lawsuit can be outcome-determinative, it is important to accurately ascertain and determine the relevant law. In fact, the proper functioning of private international law in a domestic system is based on the appropriate application of law. U.S. federal and state courts are presumed competent to apply foreign law. They also have a broad range of tools available to determine, interpret, and apply it. However, many courts hesitate to delve into territory comprised of unfamiliar legal rules and norms. Because most U.S. judges have neither intensively studied nor practiced foreign law, many fear that cases involving foreign law are extraordinarily difficult and time consuming. Other courts dread situations in which the litigants, their expert witnesses, and available legal materials paint conflicting pictures of the relevant foreign law. As such, judges may tend to shy away from foreign law issues or even look for ways to dismiss claims involving foreign law. In many instances, such fears are overblown and the resulting dismissals are unjustified. To overcome ongoing hesitation and concerns, it is time for U.S. court systems to explore more efficient, effective, and precise ways of determining and applying foreign law. U.S. courts need to more openly embrace the application of foreign law as global commerce and interaction depend upon a stable, predictable, and fair system of dispute resolution. This article examines the tools currently available to U.S. courts to determine foreign law, and suggests how to better utilize such tools. It also advocates that U.S. court systems should seriously consider adopting certain innovative techniques to ensure the fair, objective, and expert application of foreign law. Such techniques include the formation of formal or informal judicial exchange agreements that enable U.S. courts to directly solicit the assistance of foreign courts and governments when addressing disputed issues or unsettled questions of foreign law. Enhanced and innovative techniques can not only help U.S. courts streamline the process of determining foreign law, but can also help increase accuracy when doing so

Assessing the Direct and Indirect Impact of Citizen Participation in Serious Criminal Trials in Japan

In Japan, the idea of citizen involvement in the judicial process has gained greater acceptance over the past decade. On May 21, 2009, Japan implemented its saiban’in seido or “lay judge system” as part of monumental legal reforms designed to encourage civic engagement, enhance transparency, and provide greater access to the justice system. About eight years before this historic day, a special governmental committee known as the Justice System Reform Council (“JSRC”) set forth wide-sweeping recommendations for revamping Japan’s judicial system. The underlying goals targeted three pillars of fundamental reform, namely: (i) a justice system that is “easier to use, easier to understand, and more reliable;” (ii) a legal profession “rich both in quality and quantity;” and (iii) a popular base in which citizens’ trust in the legal system is enhanced through their participation in legal proceedings. The JSRC viewed the judicial system as an engine capable of propelling both economic and societal change. It believed that lay judge participation could function as a piston in this engine by helping shift Japan away from centralized control and heavy bureaucratic regulation. Lay participation was consistent with the perceived need for Japanese citizens to not only break away from excessive dependency on the government, but also to develop greater civic consciousness, become more actively involved in public affairs, and better integrate community values into the justice system. From the outset, the creation and implementation of the lay judge system have been strongly controlled by the status quo such that direct impact on the outcome of individual criminal trials has been minimized. However, the value of this monumental court reform in Japan has been educational, indirect, and real. This Article examines the direct impact of the lay judge system, describes several of the indirect benefits of the new system, and then explores the potential of the system going forward. This analysis is done through the lens of Malcolm Feeley’s 1983 work entitled Court Reform on Trial

Prime Time for Japan to Take Another Step Forward in Lay Participation: Exploring Expansion to Civil Trials

With Japan marking its three-year anniversary of the lay judge system, now is an ideal time to assess the progress of the new system, examine its effect on Japanese society, and explore future possibilities. More significantly, this paper asserts that the convergence of various forces makes this an ideal time to expand lay participation into the civil realm so as to enhance the justice process and fully achieve the objectives of Japan’s major legal reforms. Accordingly, this paper is separated into three sections. First, Part I details the underpinnings of Japan’s new lay judge system and examines its triumphs and shortcomings. Not only does close scrutiny of the lay judge system benefit Japan, but it can also offer valuable lessons on an international scale to other countries using or considering the use of jury or quasi-jury systems. Second, Part II addresses the future and explores a concept largely unaddressed in academic discourse by suggesting that Japan should seriously consider expanding the use of citizen judges beyond serious criminal trials and into the civil realm. This section addresses the merits of potential expansion and examines possible drawbacks to lay participation in certain civil trials. Finally, Part III points out several issues that Japan would need to address if citizen judges were able to participate in certain civil trials. Now that lay participation in serious criminal trials has apparently taken root in Japanese society, it is a prime time to assess and explore the possibility of expanding the use of citizen judges to further and fully achieve the expressed goals of Japan’s ongoing judicial reforms

An Intelligent Fuse-box for use with Renewable Energy Sources integrated within a Domestic Environment

This paper outlines a proposal for an intelligent fuse-box that can replace existing fuse-boxes in a domestic context such that a number of renewable energy sources can easily be integrated into the domestic power supply network, without the necessity for complex islanding and network protection. The approach allows intelligent control of both the generation of power and its supply to single or groups of electrical appliances. Energy storage can be implemented in such a scheme to even out the power supplied and simplify the control scheme required, and environmental monitoring and load analysis can help in automatically controlling the supply and demand profiles for optimum electrical and economic efficiency. Simulations of typical scenarios are carried out to illustrate the concept in operation

Stochastic Weighted Graphs: Flexible Model Specification and Simulation

In most domains of network analysis researchers consider networks that arise in nature with weighted edges. Such networks are routinely dichotomized in the interest of using available methods for statistical inference with networks. The generalized exponential random graph model (GERGM) is a recently proposed method used to simulate and model the edges of a weighted graph. The GERGM specifies a joint distribution for an exponential family of graphs with continuous-valued edge weights. However, current estimation algorithms for the GERGM only allow inference on a restricted family of model specifications. To address this issue, we develop a Metropolis--Hastings method that can be used to estimate any GERGM specification, thereby significantly extending the family of weighted graphs that can be modeled with the GERGM. We show that new flexible model specifications are capable of avoiding likelihood degeneracy and efficiently capturing network structure in applications where such models were not previously available. We demonstrate the utility of this new class of GERGMs through application to two real network data sets, and we further assess the effectiveness of our proposed methodology by simulating non-degenerate model specifications from the well-studied two-stars model. A working R version of the GERGM code is available in the supplement and will be incorporated in the gergm CRAN package.Comment: 33 pages, 6 figures. To appear in Social Network

ASSESSING THE EFFECT OF ECR ON FINANCIAL AND OPERATING PERFORMANCE

A debate has emerged in the literature and trade press whether the adoption of Efficient Consumer Response (ECR), the supply chain management initiatives for the food industry, leads to improved inventory and financial performance. Using regression analysis, the financial performance for adopters of ECR is about 3 to 4% higher than for non-adopters. However, the growth in profit does not appear to come from improved performance for traditional inventory measures (such as inventory turnover, inventory-to-sales, or inventory-to-assets). The driving force behind these improved financial measures can be attributed to changes leading to a shorter cash conversion cycle. In addition, size matters; ECR is more effective due to economies of scale, information technology, and buying power.Industrial Organization,