Inaugural diversity award winner is announced; law firm award,honorable mention go to two U.K. firms

The CPR Institute presents its first Award for Outstanding Contribution to Diversity in ADR, and its second set of honorees for the Law Firm Award for Excellence in ADR. Also, CPR offers mediation space, and more.     

The directive is in: European Union strongly backs cross‐border mediation

The European Union makes it official: It prefers mediation for cross‐border civil and commercial disputes. Now, the member states must adopt laws and regulations implementing that preference. Full details on the new EU mediation directive are provided. Also: New York's top court will decide a controversial mediation confidentiality case, and New Jersey's Supreme Court gets a recommendation to ease an ADR representative registration rule.     

CPR's weekly IDN podcast looks at India's booming legal outsourcing

The latest CPR International Dispute Negotiation podcasts; a new online training partnership with West LegalEdcenter debuts with four sessions from January's Annual Meeting; registration has opened for next month's Fourth Annual European Business Mediation Congress, and more.     

Nomination time: CPR's 2008 law firm award

The competition opens for CPR's second Law Firm Award for Excellence in ADR, with entries due this month. Also, details on next month's meeting in Houston; the CPR National Task Force on Diversity in ADR; the keynoter for January's 30th Anniversary CPR Annual Meeting, and much more.     

Diagnosis of herpetic uveitis and keratouveitis

The use of seven benzoyl-L-amino acids for the detection of carboxypeptidase activities in strains of Gram-negative aerobic and facultatively anaerobic bacteria is reported. A simple overnight assay was designed using ninhydrin for the demonstration of the amino acid released by hydrolysis. Detection of carboxypeptidase activity was shown to have some taxonomic relevance within the Enterobacteriaceae; it was also useful for differentiation within the genus Acinetobacter and for distinction between Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Pseudomonas fluorescens.     

Modellierung des technischen Wahrnehmungsbewusstseins für den Bereich Home Automation

The OSI model and the system of profiles defined for various branches are the most important models for describing the communication of technical units in the area of home automation. But they are not enough for describing complex expiry scenarios in houses and buildings as a whole. The following paper presents such a model, which is presently being realized in the Smart Kitchen project. In doing so we will be able to cover, amongst other things, aspects like reliability, availability, maintainability, interoperability and profitability. Several institutes are involved in this project.     

The Bit (and Three Other Abstractions) Define the Borderline Between Hardware and Software

Minds and Machines - Modern computing is generally taken to consist primarily of symbol manipulation. But symbols are abstract, and computers are physical. How can a physical device manipulate...     

Practice alert: CPR revises its arbitration rules,both domestic and international

Philadelphia's Stradley Ronon wins the first CPR Law Firm Award for Excellence in ADR. Also: CPR's arbitration rules are revised; Web site podcasts are launched; the January 2007 CPR Annual Meeting agenda is announced, and CPR releases its full Corporate Leadership Award Dinner sponsor list