Exclusive Control Research Articles

Conserving what? Conservation easements and environmental justice in the coastal US South

Conservation easements, voluntary legal agreements whereby a landowner forfeits some of his or her land development rights in exchange for tax benefits, are an increasingly common strategy for protecting land from development in the United States today. For instance, from 2005 to 2015, private land under conservation easement in the United States increased by 175%, growing to more than 16 million acres held by land trusts, which are collectively endowed with more than $2.2 billion in funding. Recent critical analyses of this trend conceptualize conservation easements as a tool of neoliberal environmental governance, whereby nature is increasingly individuated and conservation is (at least partially) privatized. Conservation easements grew rapidly in the 1980s as the result of a compromise between mainstream environmental organizations and the Reagan administration’s anti-public lands agenda; thus, one interpretation is that they are the pragmatic “roll-out” of conservation efforts from a handcuffed liberal environmental movement. Yet, our historical and qualitative analysis of the politics of conservation easements in the coastal US South suggests that they were actually an elite white class project from the start, rather than a reaction to constraints on public lands protection. Thus, we argue that the environmental justice implications of conservation easements deserve more attention. Our efforts to develop a spatial-statistical assessment of the ways that their ecological benefits are distributed beyond parcel boundaries were limited by the privatization of data on conservation easements. Instead, we assess the distribution of easements themselves across the region, finding limited differences, but ones that we interpret as meaningful, between public and private conservation lands regarding racial composition and incomes of nearby populations. Importantly, this kind of mixed-methods analysis indicates how the exclusive control of data undergirds the exclusive control of land. Most broadly, we argue that Cheryl Harris’s theorization of “whiteness as property” remains an important resource for political ecologists because it helps specify the relationship between race, class, and nature under capitalism.

Consorting with Stone

AbstractThis essay places Marie de France’s lai “Yonec” (ca. 1150–1200) and the anonymous Middle English romance King Horn (ca. 1250–1300) in conversation with critical Indigenous theories of relational, land-based sovereignty and resurgence. At first, “Yonec” and King Horn appear to reinscribe a Western form of sovereignty based on exclusive territorial control. Both works offer alternative models of sovereignty and self-determination, however, in their depictions of cooperative, lithic alliance between stone and female consorts. Adopting the term lithic sovereignty to describe the works’ relation-based sovereign imaginaries, this essay first follows the King Horn narrator’s depiction of Godhild’s hermetic retreat into stone when Saracens conquer her husband’s realm. Then it turns to the nameless lady of “Yonec” and her implausible escape from her jealous husband’s tower, facilitated by the very stone that had seemed to entrap her. Drawing on critical Indigenous studies, legal studies, and ecomaterialism, this essay concludes that both King Horn and “Yonec” offer a medieval British imaginary of lithic relational sovereignty that runs counter to teleological, naturalizing narratives of Euro-Western origins.

Evaluating small conditional cash transfers to improve vaccine coverage and timeliness in Pakistan

Abstract Background Low immunization coverage rates have prompted the need to design effective demand-side interventions to improve uptake. Simple SMS reminders and large (≥USD 100) incentives have been demonstrated to effectively increase immunization coverage. However, research on small incentives (≤USD 15) for immunization is sparse and there is uncertainty regarding the optimal structure of incentives in terms of size, schedule, and design. Methods A 12-arm randomized controlled trial is being conducted in Karachi, Pakistan with 10 incentive arms of varying size (amount), schedules (progressivity) and design (certainty of payment), an exclusive SMS arm and control arm. The incentives are provided through two mechanisms: mobile air time and mobile-money through a mobile-money provider. Children were enrolled when they presented to the study sites for either BCG, Penta-1, or Penta-2 vaccine. Results A total of 11,197 children were enrolled between Nov 2017 and Oct 2018 with approximately 800 children in each incentive arm and 1600 and 1599 in SMS and Control arm, respectively. As of Jan 09, 2020, Penta-3 and Measles-1 coverage are lowest in the control arm (71% and 60% respectively) and highest in the high-flat-lottery arm (78% and 69% respectively) with uniformly progressing incentive amounts along the immunization schedule. Discussion Interim results suggest that small mobile-based incentives coupled with SMS reminders can significantly improve immunization coverage in children. The final analysis will provide robust evidence of this impact and provide policy implications for the most optimal incentive structure that can build caregiver demand for effectively increasing child immunization in an LMIC setting. Key messages Small incentives (USD<15) coupled with simple SMS reminders can improve immunization coverage and timeliness in low resource settings in an inexpensive, logistically simple way. The study will provide experimental evidence on optimal incentive design, structure, and size of small incentives for a cost-effective approach to increase immunization coverage and timeliness.

Effect of Low-Pressure Plasma Treatment Parameters on Wrinkle Features.

Wrinkles attract significant attention due to their ability to enhance the mechanical and optical characteristics of various optoelectronic devices. We report the effect of the plasma gas type, power, flow rate, and treatment time on the wrinkle features. When an optical adhesive was treated using a low-pressure plasma of oxygen, argon, and nitrogen, the oxygen and argon plasma generated wrinkles with the lowest and highest wavelengths, respectively. The increase in the power of the nitrogen and oxygen plasma increased the wavelengths and heights of the wrinkles; however, the increase in the power of the argon plasma increased the wavelengths and decreased the heights of the wrinkles. Argon molecules are heavier and smaller than nitrogen and oxygen molecules that have similar weights and sizes; moreover, the argon plasma comprises positive ions while the oxygen and nitrogen plasma comprise negative ions. This resulted in differences in the wrinkle features. It was concluded that a combination of different plasma gases could achieve exclusive control over either the wavelength or the height and allow a thorough analysis of the correlation between the wrinkle features and the characteristics of the electronic devices.

The Right to Process Data for Machine Learning Purposes in the EU

Europe is now at a crucial juncture in deciding how to deploy data driven technologies in ways that encourage democracy, prosperity and the well-being of European citizens. Normative preferences about how related technology laws ought to be designed should define sustainable exponential innovation policy. These preferences are dynamic and contextual. The upcoming European Data Act provides a major window of opportunity to change the story. In this respect, it is key that the European Commission takes firm action, removes overbearing policy and regulatory obstacles, strenuously harmonizes relevant legislation and provides concrete incentives and mechanisms for access, sharing and re-use of data. The article argues that to ensure an efficiently functioning European data-driven economy, a new and as yet unused term must be introduced to the field of AI & law: the right to process data for machine learning purposes. To make AI and machine learning thrive, we should critically re-examine the applicability and scope of intellectual property rights to data, including copyrights, sui generis database rights and trade secrets. The article demonstrates that exclusive de facto possession or control over machine learning input training, testing and validation datasets hinders healthy competition, a fair level playing field and rapid European innovation. The article rejects exclusive legal ownership rights over autonomously machine generated non-personal data, including AI made creations and inventions: this output belongs to the public domain. Machines do not need incentives, people need freedom of expression and businesses need freedom to operate. Synchronous to harmonized legislation, the social impact of digital transformation can be balanced and regulated by the architecture of digital systems. Embedding values in design should become a fundamental starting point of our data paradigm. Data has become a primary resource that should not be enclosed or commodified per se, but used for the common good. Commons based production and data for social good initiatives should be stimulated by the state. We need not to think in terms of exclusive, private property on data, but in terms of rights and freedoms to use, (modalities of) access, process and share data. If necessary and desirable for the progress of society, the state can implement new forms of property. Against this background the article explores normative justifications for open innovation, drawing inspiration from the works of canonical thinkers such as Locke, Marx, Kant and Hegel. Whether or not data as digital assets are ultimately admitted to the numerus clausus of legal objects i.e. acknowledged as subject matter eligible for private ownership, or whether other modalities and states of property are being developed, the article maintains that there should also be exceptions to (de facto, economic or legal) ownership claims on data that provide user rights and freedom to operate in the setting of AI model training. The article concludes that this exception is conceivable as a legal concept analogous to a quasi, imperfect usufruct in the form of a right to process data for machine learning purposes. A combination of usus and fructus (ius utendi et fruendi), not for land but for primary resource data. A right to process data that works within the context of AI and the Internet of Things (IoT), and that fits in the EU acquis communautaire. Such a right makes access, sharing and re-use of data possible, and helps to fulfil the European Strategy for Data’s desiderata.

Strengthen Electronic Health Records System (EHR-S) Access-Control to Cope with GDPR Explicit Consent.

Patient consent is currently a missing piece on Electronic Health Records System (EHR-S) access permission. The control is needed to ensure personal data as the property of the individual, not data controllers or health-care service providers. To cope with this need, in this article, an adaptation of existent Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), including patient-centric control, is described. The revisited feature of existing administrative and supporting RBAC functions allows exclusive control orchestrated by the patient as sole information owner, including the ability to encrypt their data for confidentiality purposes. The additions mimic a Discretionary Access Control (DAC) capability using existing user group membership to vet access over symmetric keys bind to patient's data via the associated PERMS matrix.

An active preventive maintenance approach of complex equipment based on a novel product-service system operation mode

The product-service system (PSS) business model has received increasing attention in equipment maintenance studies, as it has the potential to provide high value-added services for equipment users and construct ethical principles for equipment providers to support the implementation of circular economy. However, the PSS providers in equipment industry are facing many challenges when implementing Industry 4.0 technologies. One important challenge is how to fully collect and analyse the operational data of different equipment and diverse users in widely varied conditions to make the PSS providers create innovative equipment management services for their customers. To address this challenge, an active preventive maintenance approach for complex equipment is proposed. Firstly, a novel PSS operation mode was developed, where complex equipment is offered as a part of PSS and under exclusive control by the providers. Then, a solution of equipment preventive maintenance based on the operation mode was designed. A deep neural network was trained to predict the remaining effective life of the key components and thereby, it can pre-emptively assess the health status of equipment. Finally, a real-world industrial case of a leading CNC machine provider was developed to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach. Higher accuracy for predicting the remaining effective life was achieved, which resulted in predictive identification of the fault features, proactive implementation of the preventive maintenance, and reduction of the PSS providers’ maintenance costs and resource consumption. Consequently, the result shows that it can help PSS providers move towards more ethical and sustainable directions.

The Impact of Incomplete Faces of Spokes-Characters in Mobile Application Icon Designs on Brand Evaluations

In this article, we explore how incomplete spokes-character faces (versus complete spokes-character faces in application icon designs) make a positive impression on users, and we outline the boundary conditions. Across three studies, we find incomplete spokes-character faces to be an effective image icon tool. In study 1, we find that spokes-characters with incomplete faces improve users’ brand evaluations. In study 2, we find that incomplete spokes-character faces create perceptions of anthropomorphism, which lead to more favorable brand evaluations by enhancing the interpersonal closeness between the user and the brand. The results of study 3, however, show that the type of social exclusion (control vs. ignored vs. rejected) moderates the relationship between incomplete spokes-character faces in mobile application icons and brand evaluations.

Competition and Intellectual Property Rights: Interface and Interdependence in Indian Context

Competition and innovation are two major components of any market economy. They are the pillars on which growth, development and efficiency are built, generated and enhanced. Competition Law and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are both founded with the purpose of achieving economic development, technological advancement and consumer welfare. Intellectual property covers a bundle of rights such as patents, trademarks or copyrights, each of them different in scope and duration with a different purpose and effect. Intellectual property law subjects intellectual assets to the exclusive control of the owners, assignees and licensees. Competition law on the other hand, seeks to promotes competition, increase access to market and benefit consumers by ensuring that the manufacturers and suppliers of goods, services and technologies effectively compete against each other.

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in the Field of Virtual and Augmented Reality

In the paper, the author notes that the development of modern technologies, including artificial intelligence, unmanned transport, robotics, portable and embedded digital devices, already has a great impact on the daily life of a person and can fundamentally change the existing social order in the near future.Virtual reality as a technology was born in the cross-section of research in the field of three-dimensional computer graphics and human-machine interaction. The spectrum of mixed reality includes the real world itself, the one that is before our eyes, the world of augmented reality — an improved reality that results from the introduction of sensory data into the field of perception in order to supplement information about the surrounding world and improve the perception of information; the world of virtual reality, which is created using technologies that provide full immersion in the environment. In some studies, augmented virtuality is also included in the spectrum, which implies the addition of virtual reality with elements of the real world (combining the virtual and real world).The paper substantiates the conclusion that in the near future both the legislator and judicial practice will have to find a balance between the interests of the creators of virtual worlds and virtual artists exclusive control over their virtual works, on the one hand, and society in using these virtual works and their development, on the other hand. It is necessary to allow users to participate, interact and create new forms of creative expression in the virtual environment.The author concludes that a broader interpretation of the fair use doctrine should be applied in this area, especially for those virtual worlds and virtual objects that imitate the real world and reality. However, it is necessary to distinguish between cases where the protection of such objects justifies licensing and those where it is advisable to encourage unrestricted use of the results for the further development of new technologies.

Rapid activation of distinct members of multigene families in Plasmodium spp

The genomes of Plasmodium spp. encode a number of different multigene families that are thought to play a critical role for survival. However, with the exception of the P. falciparum var genes, very little is known about the biological roles of any of the other multigene families. Using the recently developed Selection Linked Integration method, we have been able to activate the expression of a single member of a multigene family of our choice in Plasmodium spp. from its endogenous promoter. We demonstrate the usefulness of this approach by activating the expression of a unique var, rifin and stevor in P. falciparum as well as yir in P. yoelii. Characterization of the selected parasites reveals differences between the different families in terms of mutual exclusive control, co-regulation, and host adaptation. Our results further support the application of the approach for the study of multigene families in Plasmodium and other organisms.

“Data localization”: The internet in the balance

There is a steady global trend towards “Data Localization,” laws by which data is required to be maintained and processed within the geographic boundaries of its state of origin. This development has raised concerns about its possible adverse impacts on emerging data-intensive technologies such as Cloud services/E-commerce, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things (collectively, the Embedded Infosphere). The inability to reach an international agreement on rules for cross-border data flows may have significant adverse consequences for all future users of the Internet.The basis of Data Localization is grounded in two distinct but inter-related policy models: Data Sovereignty and Trans-Border Data Flows. These two concepts have different origins. “Data Sovereignty” is derived from the historic power of a state of absolute and exclusive control within its geographic borders. Policies behind TBDFs arose in Europe following World War II, primarily motivated by Nazi use of early proto-computers to help round up Jews and others. As they have evolved, TBDF policies have been directed primarily at protecting personal data and privacy.This article first examines the issues of: 1) “Information Sovereignty” and 2) TBDFs. It then describes the arguments for and against “Data Localization,” offers some examples of strong localization policies (Russia, China), and summarizes contesting policy proposals. It then contextualizes TBDF with issues of human rights (free flow of information) and privacy.While the utility of an international agreement on TBDFs is clear, the differences in approaches are tenacious. For the free-market developed world (e.g, EU, OECD), the path forward seems to lead through policy convergence to compatible rules, with differentiated levels of data protection and accountability. It is far from clear whether these rules will address, in a mandatory way, issues of the “free flow” of information in the human rights sense. At the same time, there are countries (e.g., BRICS), representing a majority of the world's population, in which political and cultural resistance will produce stringent Cyber Sovereignty and Data Localization policies with few if any human rights components.The article concludes that the more the Internet is “localized”, the more attenuated its benefits will become. The negative consequences of Data Localization will become increasingly obvious as new, data-intensive technologies become ubiquitous, creating a condition of “Data Dependence”. It is projected that in the future the nations with the least amount of Data Localization and the most open flow of information will be the most successful in benefiting from new data-intensive embedded, networked technologies. This will most likely be characterized by values adopted as policies and practices in the EU.

Bargaining power, decision making, and biofortification: The role of gender in adoption of orange sweet potato in Uganda

We examine the role of gender dimensions of intrahousehold bargaining power and decision making in the adoption and diffusion of orange sweet potato (OSP), a biofortified crop being promoted to increase dietary intakes of vitamin A in Uganda. We use patterns of ownership and control of land and other assets by married men and women to create gender-disaggregated indicators of bargaining power, allowing for joint and sole ownership and control of land and assets. Using data from an experimental evaluation of a project promoting OSP adoption, we find that the probability of adopting OSP is not affected by the exclusive or joint control of assets by women at the household level. However, within households, parcels of land under joint control, in which the woman has primary control over decision making, are significantly more likely to contain OSP. Women who control a higher share of household nonland resources are more likely to share OPS vines, showing that women use greater bargaining power to facilitate diffusion of this health-promoting technology. We do not find any impact of women’s bargaining power on children’s dietary intakes of Vitamin A, possibly because husbands and wives have the same preferences regarding their children’s nutritional status. These results contribute to reshaping our understanding of household decision making to inform the design and implementation of agriculture-nutrition interventions.

The Counter-Revolutionary Nation-State Law

Anyone who reads Israel’s Basic Law: Israel – Nation-State of the Jewish People, 5778-2018 with sufficient background knowledge of Israeli law will have a difficult time understanding what all the fuss is about. The hyperbolic criticisms — that the law establishes an ethnocracy, demotes the status of Arab citizens or the Arabic language, sends exclusionary messages or demotes equality or democracy in Israeli law — cannot be squared with a law that consists of symbolic and declarative statements that are not legally enforceable and have long been in the Israeli consensus. The real story of the law is an institutional struggle between Knesset and judiciary over Israel’s constitution. The lack of substance of the law is deliberate, and designed to highlight the contradiction between the Supreme Court’s claim of exclusive control over constitutional principles and its claim of Basic Laws’ supremacy.

Overcoming Sovereignty for Space Traffic Management

The question of sovereignty, or authority over the space domain has created a barrier to development of space traffic management regimes, particularly those seeking to use air traffic control or air traffic management (ATM) as an operational model. States exercise control over sovereign airspace as the airspace over a state and its territorial waters is recognized as within its authority. States provide air traffic services over high seas airspace that is delegated to them by the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization under the provisions of the Chicago Convention. This concept of air traffic management is built on a foundational understanding that a single authority is responsible for each defined volume of airspace.In the space domain, there is no specific delegation of volumes of space to specified authorities. The Outer Space treaty clearly reflects that no claim of sovereignty is to be made. Without the authority to exercise sovereign control over the domain, is space traffic management possible?Consider that space activities are launched from sovereign territory, transit through sovereign airspace, progress through high altitude/near space regions where sovereignty is ambiguous, and operate in orbits where no sovereignty exists; is too much emphasis placed on the sovereignty question? If we make a clear distinction between regulation and control, can we eliminate the sovereignty barrier? To apply the model of air traffic management to a space traffic management concept that is applicable from the on-orbit regime, down to the near space transition, to regulated airspace, a comprehensive understanding of the elements of ATM is needed to identify relevant tools that can be exported to STM. The concept of air traffic control over instrument flight rules (IFR) flights is less relevant to STM than other regulatory and advisory elements of ATM including flight services, traffic information services, and safety alerts. Similarly, dividing STM into its component parts allows for comparisons to elements of ATM that may provide operational models for the provision of a safety service that does not depend on sovereign authority or exclusive control over a volume of space. This paper will examine the legal, policy and technical barriers to the implementation of a space traffic management regime and specifically how the sovereignty barriers can be overcome to construct and implement a global safety service in space.

Married Monastics and Military Life: Contradictions and Conflicted Identities within South Korea’s Buddhist Chaplaincy System

Since its modern origins in the Buddhist Purification Movement of the 1950s, South Korea’s Jogye Order has established monastic celibacy as central to its identity and claim to legitimacy as a Buddhist sect. However, in the order’s urgency to introduce Buddhist chaplains to the South Korean military in the 1960s, after almost two decades of Protestant monopoly over the chaplaincy program, the Jogye Order permitted its chaplains to marry; a practice which soon became the norm. This contradiction grew increasingly problematic for the order over subsequent decades and, in 2009, it attempted to resolve the issue by reversing the marriage exception for chaplains, reinforcing their identity as monastics within the order. While controversial, the resolution has proved effective in practice. However, this reversal has also provoked unprecedented lawsuits against South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense in 2017 and a ruling by Korea’s Human Rights Commission in 2018, challenging the Jogye Order’s exclusive control of the military’s Buddhist chaplaincies. Given the challenges these issues currently present to the Jogye Order’s chaplaincy program, this article interrogates the origins, history, significance, and impact of the issues surrounding the order’s marriage exemption for its military chaplains.

There’s Probably a Blackout in Your Television Future: Tracking New Carriage Negotiation Strategies Between Video Content Programmers and Distributors

Video programmers and the satellite and cable operators who distribute theircontent execute contracts for the mutually profitable offering of services toconsumers. However, when programmers and distributors fail to reach closure onnew terms and conditions before the end date of an existing agreement, serviceinterruptions (“blackouts”) occur. Video consumers resent having to pay sizablemonthly subscriptions for content they temporarily cannot view, and bothprogrammers and distributors risk financial injury.Recognizing the mutual harm to all parties, video programmers and so-calledMultichannel Video Programming Distributors (“MVPDs”) usually limit thefrequency and duration of blackouts. Heretofore, MVPDs have been able to pass onto subscribers higher programming costs through increased monthly rates withoutsignificant declines in subscribership. However, the marketplace for videoprogramming has experienced significant change in recent years, calling intoquestion the continuing ability of MVPDs to raise rates annually at percentages wellabove measures of general inflation. Additionally, MVPDs have experiencedunprecedented declines in subscribership and encountered consumer resentment athaving to pay rates, often in excess of $100 monthly, for programming tierscontaining dozens of channels, many of which few subscribers have an interest inviewing.Through cord cutting and cord shaving, increasing numbers of video consumershave abandoned an MVPD subscription or downgraded to a less expensive servicetier to incur lower monthly rates. Video consumers also have shown greater interestin so-called nonlinear content, available as downloadable files and streaming ondemand from new online services, such as Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix, in lieu of conventional live, linear content transmitted by television broadcasters andMVPDs. The marketplace success of nonlinear video content providersdemonstrates the growing willingness of consumers to use broadband networks forover-the-top (“OTT”) access to alternative and competitive sources.This Article identifies significant changes in the video marketplace that willtrigger more frequent and longer blackouts. The Article will explain howmarketplace changes impact the three major sources of video content that MVPDsand broadband networks deliver: (1) broadcast television channels; (2) video contenttargeted for MVPD subscribers, such as that on CNN, ESPN, and HBO; and (3)video, offered on both a linear and nonlinear basis, by new OTT ventures.For broadcast television, this Article shows how current marketplace conditionschallenge the ongoing viability of a legislatively crafted compromise that accordsbroadcasters the option of electing mandatory carriage of their signal by MVPDs (the“must-carry” requirement) in lieu of contractual “retransmission consent”negotiations. Broadcasters secure guaranteed carriage via MVPDs, and MVPDsbenefit by the conferral of a low-cost copyright license to use broadcasters’ content.For competing nonbroadcast video content, MVPDs and the manufacturers ofdevices, such as Roku, which transfer broadband video content to television sets viabroadband networks, negotiate both copyright licenses and delivery rights directlywith video programmers. This group also faces market volatility due to changes inconsumer preferences and the growing array of video content options available.The Article seeks to answer whether video programmers or MVPDs haveoverestimated their own negotiating leverage and, in turn, their ability to securefavorable contractual terms and conditions. Broadcasters historically appear to havegreater leverage, because they have exclusive control over live, “must-see,” linearcontent, such as sporting events. This advantage has motivated most broadcasters toeschew the must-carry option and elect retransmission consent negotiations. TheArticle suggests that a significant increase in blackouts has resulted from reducedopportunities for MVPDs to raise subscription rates without triggering substantialincreases in subscriber migration to other broadband-delivered program options.The Article notes that vertically and horizontally integrated MVPDs, such asAT&T and Comcast, are better situated to tolerate more frequent and lengthyblackouts. These companies can offset the adverse financial impact of MVPDsubscriber churn with blackout-free alternatives, increased subscribership of theirbroadband services and unregulated bundling of services and content for subscriberswilling to upgrade and pay a higher monthly fee. The Article closely examines arecent antitrust enforcement case that approved AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner,with an eye toward determining whether reviewing courts understood shiftingmarketplace conditions that affect the likelihood for more and longer blackouts.The Article concludes that in the AT&T case, both the district and appellate courtswoefully underappreciated the ability of this widely diversified venture to trigger andtolerate more blackouts in its capacity as an MVPD and broadband access provider,separate and apart from its capacity as the new owner of Time Warner’s “must-see”CNN and HBO content. The courts concluded that AT&T, having largely abandonedits leverage over access to the Time Warner video content, lacked the ability to trigger blackouts. The courts emphasized the long-term carriage agreements TimeWarner had previously negotiated with unaffiliated MVPDs and AT&T’s offer tomaintain content access during arbitration of disputes occurring for seven years aftermerger approval. The courts failed to recognize the significant harm AT&T, in itscapacity as a major national MVPD, could inflict on competition and consumers byincreasing its use of blackouts for negotiating leverage.

Particle Size Effect on Platinum Dissolution: Considerations for Accelerated Stability Testing of Fuel Cell Catalysts

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are highly attractive for use in electric vehicles. In PEMFCs, small particle sizes of the Pt catalyst are required to increase Pt utilization, which lower costs and also increase Pt dispersion, which itself minimizes O2 mass transport losses. Reducing the particle size improves both the utilization and dispersion; however, stability of small particle sizes is an issue. Pt dissolution, as one of the major degradation mechanisms of PEMFC catalyst layers, is predicted to depend on the particle size. The particle size cannot be independently varied from loading in commercial Pt/C materials that have been used in numerous studies employing accelerated stability tests (ASTs). Therefore, in the study presented here, the Pt particle diameter was varied from 2 to 10 nm by depositing mass-selected nanoparticles on a flat glassy carbon substrate using magnetron sputtering. This allows exclusive control over particle density (interparticle distance) and particle size, which becomes difficult even with advanced synthetic techniques for applied Pt/C materials. Additionally, effects of the 3D porous support are eliminated. These model systems were subjected to an aggressive AST in order to cause significant Pt dissolution, which was monitored online using the scanning flow cell coupled to an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. The results uncover a previously overlooked phenomenon: two competing trends in dissolution from (1) particle passivation caused by particle size-dependent shifts on oxophilicity and (2) electrochemically active surface area. Therefore, crucial impacts of the particle size on degradation may be overlooked in a variety of electrochemical studies, which compare catalytic materials. Finally, suggestions are given for improved ASTs for dissolution, which provide insights into the intrinsic stability of Pt nanoparticles toward dissolution.

The Managing Lawmaker in Cyberspace: A New Power Model

This paper is about the of The Internet Corporation for Names and Numbers (ICANN). It examines how this was created, augmented, strengthened, and reigned in. ICANN poses a puzzle. It is essentially an unregulated and undemocratic monopoly. Yet, ICANN's exercise of has been fairly contained. Since ICANN is a monopoly, what prevents it from taking a far more high-handed and extensive ruling posture? Even though at first blush my analogy is counterintuitive, I analogize ICANN to a managing lawmakers of market infrastructures, such as the New York Stock Exchange, while recognizing their differences. Unlike the Exchange, ICANN has close affinity to a political unit as well. The emergence of ICANN, its staying power, and the limitations on the exercise of its power, can be partly explained by an analogy to the economic theory of contestable markets. The theory deals with price. I equate price to power. High prices denote a high level of power. Low prices denote a lower level of power. In essence the theory suggests that under certain conditions a monopolist would charge low prices as if it operated in a competitive market. That is because higher prices will bring less efficient competitors into the market until prices fall and they will exit. This theory highlights a special balance of and its restraining effect. I believe that a similar idea helps understand ICANN's environment The paper notes that ICANN exercises power in default. All the strong constituents seem to have agreed not to claim exclusive control over the Internet infrastructure. The paper discusses the bases for ICANN's continuous power: its constitutional documents, and contracts, which have become part of its constitution, and its role as mediator among Internet large stakeholders. ICANN has augmented its by a stable and able management, and arguably maintained and strengthened its following by doing its share to support the stability of the Internet. ICANN's rising is demonstrated by the controversies concerning the country code Top Level Domain names (ccTLDs). The paper concludes that ICANN's is still being shaped. It could emerge along a market model, as a central catalyst for consensus building among parties with different interests. Alternatively, ICANN could also move towards a more regulatory model of consensus-based decision making. These decisions may then constitute precedents and mature into rules. Or ICANN can combine the two models to form a more structured market and more flexible regulatory body. The market model is likely to make experiment in the development of more than one root easier than the regulatory model. As the telephone experience has shown, the time may come for a multi-root cooperative Internet structure. Or we may face a technology that is today a mere twinkle in someone's eye.

Multifunctional Photosensitizing and Biotinylated Polystyrene Nanofiber Membranes/Composites for Binding of Biologically Active Compounds

A three-step postprocessing functionalization of pristine electrospun polystyrene nanofiber membranes was used for the preparation of nanostructured biotinylated materials with an externally bonded porphyrin photosensitizer. Subsequently, the material was able to strongly bind biologically active streptavidin derivatives while keeping its photosensitizing and antibacterial properties due to the generation of singlet oxygen under the exclusive control of visible light. The resulting multifunctional materials functionalized by a streptavidin-horseradish peroxidase conjugate as a model bioactive compound preserved its enzymatic activity even in the presence of a porphyrin photosensitizer with some quenching effect on the activity of the photosensitizer. Prolonged kinetics of both singlet oxygen luminescence and singlet oxygen-sensitized delayed fluorescence (SODF) were found after irradiation by visible light. The above results reflected less effective quenching of the porphyrin photosensitizer triplet state by ground state oxygen and indicated hindered oxygen transport (diffusion) due to surface functionalization. We found that SODF could be used as a valuable tool for optimizing photosensitizing efficiency as well as a tool for confirming surface functionalization. Full photosensitizing and enzyme activity could be achieved by a space separation of photosensitizers and enzyme/biomolecules in the nanofiber composites consisting of two layers. The upper layer contained a photosensitizer that generated antibacterial singlet oxygen upon irradiation by light, and the bottom layer retained enzymatic activity for biochemical reactions.