A Tale of Two Regulators: Antitrust Implications of Progressive Decentralization in Blockchain Platforms

Competition regulators have identified the potential for blockchain technology to disrupt traditional sponsor-led platforms, like app stores, that have received increased antitrust scrutiny. Enforcement actions by securities regulators, however, have forced blockchain-based platforms to adopt a strategy of progressive decentralization, delaying decentralization objectives in favor of the centralized model that competition regulators hope they will disrupt. This regulatory tension, and the implications for blockchain’s procompetitive potential, have yet to be explored. This Article first identifies the origin of this tension and its consequences through a competition law lens, and then recommends that competition regulators account for this tension in monitoring the blockchain industry and strive to resolve it moving forward

Federal Common Law’s Long Shadow: Shedding Light on State Law Rights to Postpetition Default Interest

Historically, the law imposed harsh penalties on debtors who could not meet their obligations. One regime dismembered the debtor’s body and proportionally distributed it to creditors. Rejecting these draconian penalties, the United States Constitution empowered Congress to enact federal bankruptcy legislation. Bankruptcy laws in the United States helped the “unfortunate” debtor get a fresh start while providing creditors with “prompt and effectual” administration of the debtor’s unmet obligations. In order to accomplish these policy objectives, Congress granted equitable powers to bankruptcy courts. These powers allow bankruptcy courts to occasionally adjust parties’ rights under non- bankruptcy law and fairly distribute the debtor’s assets among creditors. The process of balancing equities between the debtor and her creditors, as well as between creditors, is a central inquiry of bankruptcy law analysis

Understanding Self-Assembly and Charge Transport in Organic Solar Cells Through Efficient Computation

Organic solar cells capable of sustainably generating electricity are possible if: (1) The structures assembled by photoactive molecules can be controlled, and (2) The structures favorable for charge transport can be determined. In this dissertation we conduct computational studies to understand relationships between organic solar cell compounds, processing, structure and charge transport. We advance tools for encapsulating computational workflows so that simulations are more reproducible and transferable. We find that molecular dynamic simulations using simplified models efficiently predict experimental structures. We find that the mobilities of charges through these structures—as determined by kinetic Monte Carlo simulations—match qualitative trends expected with molecular ordering and in some cases agree quantitatively with experimental measurements. We identify percolating clusters with overlapping pi-orbitals as vital for fast charge transport, which are achieved through polymer tie-chains and extended molecular stacking. We find that machine learning predictions of electronic couplings from quantum chemical calculations gives a two-order-of-magnitude speed improvement relating structure to charge transport versus repeating the quantum calculations. We identify limitations of our structural and charge transport predictions, and provide recommendations for advancing future investigations of organic solar cells. In sum, the computational tools developed and employed herein enable the most broad and experimentally-validated sampling of self-assembled structure as a function of chemistry and processing to date. The fundamental understanding gained from these simulations informs the self-assembly and structure-transport relationships needed to advance organic solar cell engineering

Finite-time blowup for the inviscid vortex stretching equation

In this paper, we will introduce the inviscid vortex stretching equation, which is a model equation for the 3D Euler equation where the advection of vorticity is neglected. We will show that there are smooth solutions of this equation which blowup in finite-time, even when restricting to axisymmetric, swirl-free solutions. This provides further evidence of the role of advection in depleting nonlinear vortex stretching for solutions of the 3D Euler equation

Finite-time blowup for an Euler and hypodissipative Navier-Stokes model equation on a restricted constraint space

In this paper, we introduce the $\mathcal{M}$-restricted Euler and hypodissipative Navier-Stokes equations. These equations are analogous to the Euler equation and hypodissipative Navier-Stokes equation, respectively, but with the Helmholtz projection replaced by a projection onto a more restrictive constraint space. The nonlinear term arising from the self-advection of velocity is otherwise unchanged. We prove finite time-blowup when the dissipation is weak enough, by making use of a permutation symmetric Ansatz that allows for a dyadic energy cascade of the type found in the Friedlander-Katz-Pavlovi\'{c} dyadic Euler/Navier-Stokes model equation. The $\mathcal{M}$-restricted Euler and hypodissipative Navier-Stokes equations respect both the energy equality and the identity for enstrophy growth for the full Euler and hypodissipative Navier-Stokes equations

Pool Houses and Public Policy: The Uncollectability of Contractual Attorney Fees in Missouri

Homeowners associations (“HOAs”) are a foundational piece of life in the United States for people of all socioeconomic backgrounds. These planned communities provide stable living arrangements that many homeowners desire, and protect buyers’ expectations of a neighborhood’s character. Despite the ostensibly beneficial goals of HOAs, they have generated substantial controversy. Columbia, Missouri, was the backdrop of a garden-variety HOA dispute between Ajay Aggarwal and Megha Garg (“the Homeowners”) and the Arrowhead Lake Estates Homeowners Association (“Arrowhead”). The Homeowners submitted a plan for several outdoor improvements but failed to include a small shed that would cover pool equipment. After a trial judge’s denial of a substantial sum of attorney fees, the parties litigated whether the HOA should receive its attorney fees. What originally seemed like a petty dispute over a small shack became a four-year march through all three levels of Missouri’s judicial system to arrive at a result that may frustrate future litigants and harm homeowners