Keynote Address to the Atlas Conference: “International Business Disputes In An Era Of Receding Globalism”

This is a transcript of the luncheon keynote address by Lord Peter Goldsmith at the Sixth Annual Conference of the Atlanta International Arbitration Society (AtlAS) on October 23, 2017. Lord Peter Goldsmith QC, PC, is London Co-Managing Partner and Chair of European and Asian Litigation at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. He joined the firm after serving as the UK’s Attorney General from 2001-2007, prior to which he was in private practice as one of the leading barristers in London. Lord Goldsmith has a long practice in arbitration and in the interface between arbitration and litigation. He appears as counsel for leading cases in a number of jurisdictions and different arbitral institutions, including LCIA, ICC and SIAC and in ad hoc arbitrations. He is closely connected with the LCIA, ICC (for whom he co-chaired the task force on Arbitration for States and State entities), the HKIAC (of which he is Vice chairman), and SIAC. He also has been appointed or confirmed as arbitrator by LCIA, SIAC and the ICC, and is included in the international arbitration database of the Arbitration Center at the Institute of Modern Arbitration, Moscow. Lord Goldsmith also co-chaired a Task Force on ICC arbitration involving States and State entities, which recommended changes to the ICC rules of arbitration to take account of special issues faced by States in ICC arbitrations. Lord Goldsmith has appeared in numerous cases in the House of Lords, the Privy Council and the Court of Appeal, as well as international and European courts and in the courts of a number of other jurisdictions. Consistently acknowledged for his prominence, The American Lawyer states that “[he has] the advocacy skills of one of the finest barristers of his generation.” He is recommended as a leading lawyer in Chambers UK and Chambers Global for International Arbitration, Public International Law and Corporate Crime and Investigations. The guides have described him as “exceptionally accomplished,” “breathtakingly persuasive” and “one of the great doyens of the English bar.” Lord Goldsmith has a strong history and life-long support for pro bono assistance to bring legal expertise to the disadvantaged. As a young lawyer, he started a legal advice center in the East End of London and, later in his career, founded the Bar of England and Wales’ Pro Bono Unit, a nationwide charity providing the free legal services of thousands of barristers (of which he remains President), the Attorney General’s pro bono coordinating committees (which coordinates pro bono activity in England and Wales), and became first chair of the Access to Justice Foundation, a cross-profession initiative which raises money to support pro bono organisations across the country and is by statute the sole recipient of pro bono costs award (a role in which he continues). Lord Goldsmith was a graduate in law from Cambridge University with double first class honours and a Master’s from University College London. He was admitted to the Bar of England and Wales in 1972, Paris in 1997, Belize in 2010, St. Kitts and Nevis in 2010, New South Wales in 2010 and the British Virgin Islands in 2011. He is also a Registered Foreign Lawyer at the Singapore International Commercial Court

Generalised geometry, eleven dimensions and E11

We construct the non-linear realisation of E11 and its first fundamental representation in eleven dimensions at low levels. The fields depend on the usual coordinates of space-time as well as two form and five form coordinates. We derive the terms in the dynamics that contain the three form and six form fields and show that when we restricted their field dependence to be only on the usual space-time we recover the correct self-duality relation. Should this result generalise to the gravity fields then the non-linear realisation is an extension of the maximal supergravity theory, as previously conjectured. We also comment on the connections between the different approaches to generalised geometry.Comment: 17 pages, Trivial typos corrected in version one and a substantial note added which gives the equation of motion relating the gravity field to its dua

Generalised Space-time and Gauge Transformations

We consider the generalised space-time introduced by the author in 2003 in the context of the non-linear realisation of the semi-direct product of E11 and its first fundamental representation. For all the fields we propose gauge transformations which are compatible with the underlying E11 structure. A crucial role is played by the generalised vielbein that the generalised space-time possess. We work out the explicit form of the gauge transformations, at low levels, in four, five and eleven dimensions.Comment: 33 page

E11, generalised space-time and equations of motion in four dimensions

We construct the non-linear realisation of the semi-direct product of E11 and its first fundamental representation at low levels in four dimensions. We include the fields for gravity, the scalars and the gauge fields as well as the duals of these fields. The generalised space-time, upon which the fields depend, consists of the usual coordinates of four dimensional space-time and Lorentz scalar coordinates which belong to the 56-dimensional representation of E7. We demand that the equations of motion are first order in derivatives of the generalised space-time and then show that they are essentially uniquely determined by the properties of the E11 Kac-Moody algebra and its first fundamental representation. The two lowest equations correctly describe the equations of motion of the scalars and the gauge fields once one takes the fields to depend only on the usual four dimensional space-time

Development and function of human cerebral cortex neural networks from pluripotent stem cells in vitro.

A key aspect of nervous system development, including that of the cerebral cortex, is the formation of higher-order neural networks. Developing neural networks undergo several phases with distinct activity patterns in vivo, which are thought to prune and fine-tune network connectivity. We report here that human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived cerebral cortex neurons form large-scale networks that reflect those found in the developing cerebral cortex in vivo. Synchronised oscillatory networks develop in a highly stereotyped pattern over several weeks in culture. An initial phase of increasing frequency of oscillations is followed by a phase of decreasing frequency, before giving rise to non-synchronous, ordered activity patterns. hPSC-derived cortical neural networks are excitatory, driven by activation of AMPA- and NMDA-type glutamate receptors, and can undergo NMDA-receptor-mediated plasticity. Investigating single neuron connectivity within PSC-derived cultures, using rabies-based trans-synaptic tracing, we found two broad classes of neuronal connectivity: most neurons have small numbers (40). These data demonstrate that the formation of hPSC-derived cortical networks mimics in vivo cortical network development and function, demonstrating the utility of in vitro systems for mechanistic studies of human forebrain neural network biology.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from The Company of Biologists via http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/dev.12385

Gauge fields and infinite chains of dualities

We show that the particle states of Maxwell's theory, in $D$ dimensions, can be represented in an infinite number of ways by using different gauge fields. Using this result we formulate the dynamics in terms of an infinite set of duality relations which are first order in space-time derivatives. We derive a similar result for the three form in eleven dimensions where such a possibility was first observed in the context of E11. We also give an action formulation for some of the gauge fields. In this paper we give a pedagogical account of the Lorentz and gauge covariant formulation of the irreducible representations of the Poincar\'e group, used previously in higher spin theories, as this plays a key role in our constructions. It is clear that our results can be generalised to any particle.Comment: 37 page

Higher derivative type II string effective actions, automorphic forms and E11

By dimensionally reducing the ten-dimensional higher derivative type IIA string theory effective action we place constraints on the automorphic forms that appear in the effective action in lower dimensions. We propose a number of properties of such automorphic forms and consider the prospects that E11 can play a role in the formulation of the higher derivative string theory effective action.Comment: 34 page

Duality Invariant Actions and Generalised Geometry

We construct the non-linear realisation of the semi-direct product of E(11) and its first fundamental representation at lowest order and appropriate to spacetime dimensions four to seven. This leads to a non-linear realisation of the duality groups and introduces fields that depend on a generalised space which possess a generalised vielbein. We focus on the part of the generalised space on which the duality groups alone act and construct an invariant action.Comment: 59 pages (typos fixed and added comments

Readers as research detectives

Flaws in research papers are common but it may require arduous detective work to unravel them. Checklists are helpful, but many inconsistencies will only be revealed through repeated cross-checks of every little detail, just like in a crime case. As a major deterrent for dishonesty, raw data from all trials should be posted on a public website. This would also make it much easier to detect errors and flaws in publications, and it would allow many research projects to be performed without collecting new data. The prevailing culture of secrecy and ownership to data is not in the best interests of patients

Loss of AQP3 protein expression is associated with worse progression-free and cancer-specific survival in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer

Purpose Urothelial carcinoma has recently been shown to express several aquaporins (AQP), with AQP3 being of particular interest as its expression is reduced or lost in tumours of higher grade and stage. Loss of AQP3 expression was associated with worse progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with pT1 bladder cancer. The objective of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of AQP3 expression in patients with muscle-invasive bladder carcinoma (MIBC). Methods Retrospective single-centre analysis of the oncological outcome of patients following radical cystectomy (Cx) due to MIBC. Immunohistochemistry was used to assess AQP3 protein expression in 100 Cx specimens. Expression levels of AQP3 were related to clinicopathological variables. The impact of biomarker expression on progression-free, cancer-specific and overall survival was determined by multivariate Cox regression analysis (MVA). Results High expression of AQP3 by the tumour was associated with a statistically significantly improved PFS (75 vs. 19 %, p = 0.043) and CSS (75 vs. 18 %, p = 0.030) and, alongside lymph node involvement, was an independent predictor of PFS (HR 2.871, CI 1.066–7.733, p = 0.037), CSS (HR 3.325, CI 1.204–8.774, p = 0.019) and OS (HR 2.001, CI 1.014–3.947) in MVA. Conclusions Although the results of the study would be strengthened by a larger, more appropriately powered, prospective, multi-institutional study, our findings strongly suggest that AQP3 expression status may represent an independent predictor of PFS and CSS in MIBC and may help select patients in need for (neo-)adjuvant chemotherapy