Over the years, the electronic letters of credit evolved as one of the developments to meet the international trade demands coupled with the exponential technology advancements of the current times which whetted an appetite for superfluous trade and competitiveness in the trade industry. Just like legal discrepancies pursuant to the use of the letter of credit in international trade, this too demanded some legal architecture to govern its utilization. However, unlike the traditional letters of credit, there are more legal stumbling blocks concerning this form of letters of credit. The primary legal constraints being, lack of legal recognition by the courts because of their nature (being data messages); lack of recognition in the laws of contracts (digital signatures, digital contracts), public perception more especially most of the developing countries, who because of lack of technology, resources and skilled man power, lacked knowledge on the advantages of technology advancement. So, the study interrogates the legal implications of an electronic letter of credit in the international trade transactions using Botswana as a case study. Importantly, it investigates the completeness and sufficiency of the legal regimes in Botswana to enable operation of the electronic letter of credit. The conclusions are that the Botswana e-legislation drafts so far are complete as regard to the legal principles enabling electronic transactions. It also argues that the laws are comprehensive enough, receptive to the electronic documents including the upcoming developments in technology and more importantly, the fact that it provides a level playing field for all the players by protecting the rights of the users of electronic transactions in general. / tm2017 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM / Unrestricted

This dissertation provides a comparative study of letters and digital media as infrastructures of modern Chinese romance. It examines young Chinese lovers’ experiences with digital media in comparison with their forebears’ experiences with love letters in order to understand how the increased ease of communication shapes Chinese romantic relating. Based on historical documents and in-depth interviews, this dissertation argues that the Internet and mobile technology augment Chinese lovers’ capacities to contact each other over distance, to express emotions that are restrained by conventions, and to create private alcoves in public places. These augmented capacities alter various boundaries in and around romantic relationship and intensify Chinese lovers’ negotiation between individuality and relationship, between disclosure and concealment, and between the public and private realms of life. Specifically, young Chinese lovers are better able to maintain a continual sense of togetherness but have more difficulty protecting personal boundaries and being alone. They find it easier to articulate feelings that are untoward in face-to-face speech, but they also find it harder to prove the sincerity of love in text and to avoid confrontation in impulsive message exchange. They have more access to a private space, albeit virtual, and more chances to publicize their romantic lives, but by doing so they also contribute to diminished sociality in offline public spaces and have to rely on the kindness of strangers for privacy more than ever before. For young Chinese lovers, digital media promise the freedoms that are regulated and controlled by social institutions in their offline worlds, but seeking these freedoms via digital media poses chges to their relationships with themselves, with each other, and with the larger social and public worlds they live in. These chges for romantic relating, as this dissertation argues, manifest the problems of the physical and the material while digital media facilitate spiritual contact over distance. The boundaries of personal accessibility are rooted in the limitation of human attention and ultimately in human mortality; the problem of sincerity in verbalized love lies in the difficulty of invoking deeds as the culturally preferred signifier of love; private nooks in public spaces are problematic both because bodily presence in physical locales entails expectations of sociality and because information storage in virtual venues requires a material apparatus that is beyond the control of individuals. As digital media reduce physical distance as the obstacle to lovers’ spiritual contact, they also intensify the tension between the spiritual and the physical aspects of communication and relationships. Overall, this dissertation provides a tripartite approach to the study of mediation and sociality based on three dimensions of communication: contact, content, and context. It emphasizes the importance of examining the ways in which communication media enable individuals to connect with each other, to express themselves, and to privatize or publicize their relationships. This approach provides a holistic understanding of how media shape modern sociality and how that mediation contributes to the shift of social boundaries and changes in social etiquette. In addition, this study enriches the current understanding of emerging media, particularly personal communication technologies (PCTs), as a social-technological combination, and proposes the study of the combination in plural and contradictory forms. Methodologically, it suggests the significance of studying both the symbolic and material aspects of mediated communication and of examining various modes, modalities, and genres of mediated communication as the locale where the material channels of media and the symbolic meanings of interaction intersect.

We have read with interest the short communication published by Segovia-Juarez et al., 2020 in Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology establishing that high altitude reduces the infection rate of COVID-19 but not the case fatality rate in the Peruvian setting. We support this hypothesis, however there could be an important number of under registered deaths on account of a low rate of diagnostic tests performed per inhabitant and mostly in symptomatic patients (Pasquariello and Stranges, 2020). / Revisión por pares

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Much research testing positive psychological interventions (PPIs) has focused on the outcome of emotion regulation (e.g., increased positive or decreased negative emotions and affect). On the other hand, most research testing the effects of attention bias modification (ABM) has focused on the process of emotion regulation (e.g., reducing biased attention towards threatening faces in those with social anxiety disorder). Evidence is sparse and inconsistent on the process of emotion regulation in PPIs and the outcome of emotion regulation in ABM programs. Furthermore, few studies have examined the combined effects of a positive ABM (PABM) with PPIs, which is the focus of the current investigation. The aim of the study is to examine two relationships: 1) the effects of the gratitude letter PPI on the process of emotion regulation and 2) the combined effects of the PABM program and the gratitude letter PPI on the process and outcome of emotion regulation. The researchers used a dot-probe task to bias attention. The dot-probe task presented positive-neutral stimuli pairs (e.g., babies; geometric pattern). In the train-positive group, the probe appeared behind the positive images 90% of the time, compared to 50% in the control group. The researchers used a gratitude letter PPI, where participants wrote a letter for 15 minutes to someone they have never thanked, compared to the control condition who wrote a letter about their morning routine. The results suggest that the gratitude letter PPI does not affect the process of emotion regulation via attentional biases but does increase positive affect in the short term. Further, the PABM program may not affect the outcome of emotion regulation but did demonstrate a biasing of reaction time to positive pictures. This biasing of reaction times in the dot-probe was not consistent with eye-gaze patterns to positive images, suggesting that the dot-probe task does not measure or manipulate attentional biases. Finally, combining the dot-probe task and gratitude letter PPI did not produce a stronger effect on the process and outcome of emotion regulation than the gratitude letter alone. The findings of the current study suggest that the gratitude letter may be an effective and quick intervention to increase positive affect, but that the intervention is not suitable for long-term changes after a single administration. Further, individuals should not expect the dot-probe task to bias attention and should not except the task to influence the outcome of emotion regulation. Instead, researchers could use the task to measure and manipulate one’s decision-making processing speed.

< Freedom of speech > is a foundational ideograph in the American and more broadly, Western, tradition. Yet this term is not static in its meanings or commitments to social action. The current debate around cancel culture is the site of renegotiation of < freedom of speech > in relation to other terms such as < open debate >, < justice >, < marginalized >, < tolerance >, < democracy >, and < power >. This study is an ideographic analysis of two artifacts that represent two sides of the < freedom of speech > discussion: “A Letter on Justice and Open Debate” and “A More Specific Letter on Justice and Open Debate.” Following McGee’s theory and method, this research examines the diachronic definition of < freedom of speech > through the U. S. Supreme Court and the liberty model and the synchronic tensions surrounding < freedom of speech > represented in these two editorials. The analysis identifies < justice > as an inadequate and detrimental synecdoche in the renegotiation and suggests that there is no appropriate synecdoche because < freedom of speech > is prerequisite to all public debate. This renegotiation is happening now because of disparities between the ideal of < freedom of speech > and its material reality in society. Further, because < freedom of speech > has not been sufficiently defined and its alternatives explained and rebutted, it is being devalued in current society. Finally, the prevalence of the internet as a public square raises questions about protected speech as have all new media in the past. The study shows that one vision must eventually dominate because they are fundamentally irreconcilable within a single political union. The analysis concludes with an outline of the two moral visions presented in each letter and the consequences of adopting each.

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the key themes of an adolescent journey during a wilderness adventure therapy program through expressive letter writing to their parents. Ten complete sets of letters (five boys and five girls) totaling over 400 pages were analyzed by four independent coders until saturation of themes were reached. There were five overarching themes that emerged from the data: impact of wilderness experiences, desires for improved relationships, apology and accountability, negative emotions, and positive growth and coping. These themes were presented in the chronological pattern that they appeared in the letters. The findings represent the adolescents’ experiences written in their own words. This research is the first of its kind and has implications for parents and adolescents who are considering this growing treatment modality of wilderness adventure therapy, and for professionals, especially family therapists, who can use the pattern in assessment and as an intervention tool in working with families.

This thesis will discuss the organization of the letter collection of Ruricius, bishop of Limoges from ca. 485 to 506/7. Ruricius’ two-book collection (found in a unicum, the Codex Sangallensis 190) contains a variety of conventional letter types, set within the specific and complex socio-cultural setting of late 5th to early 6th century Gaul in transition. Ruricius’ collection complements the three other major extant Gallo-Roman letter collections of this period, those of Sidonius Apollinaris, Avitus of Vienne, and Ennodius of Pavia. Yet, as a result of Ruricius’ scanty references to contemporary historical circumstances, his letter collection has traditionally received less attention in studies of letter collections and late 5th century Gaul. However, the value of his letters as a late-antique letter collection for literary study is promising. The aim of this thesis is to engage with the letters of Ruricius and consider them from the perspective of a letter collection with potentially deliberate principles of organization. This is particularly pertinent for the 18-letter Book I, which shows clear signs of deliberate organization by Ruricius. Furthermore, there are compelling hints of deliberate organization in the 65 letters of Book II. This thesis will investigate both Books I and II. Through an analysis of the collection’s organizational principles, themes and imagery, and Ruricius’ self-presentation, we will investigate Ruricius’ presentation of his journey from secular aristocrat to bishop in Book I and his epistolary persona of bishop and guide in Book II.

The word journalist, and the domain of producers and texts that inhabit its boundaries, often lacks a clear and agreed definition. The dominant body of literature looks at journalists in the United States through a remote lens, locates them within a cadre of journalists operating out of a newsroom, and overlooks the multiple roles they inhabit at once. This dissertation represents an attempt to build on and extend the depth of definitions afforded the American print journalist offered in literature that dominates journalism studies. This dissertation utilizes critical textual analysis for a case study of journalists' letters to editors of journalism trade magazines to identify the patterned ways journalists define journalists. Deuze's (2005, 2007b) theory of the ideological definitions of journalists provides a framework for the analysis. Journalism trade magazines perform a special role as watchdogs of the press. Journalists who write letters to editors of these magazines are watching the watchdogs. This dissertation looks to those journalists' words to craft a nuanced understanding of the factors that shape the forces defining these journalists, their labor, and their pursuit of democratic ideals. Drawing from the corpus of letters published in American Journalism Review, Columbia Journalism Review, and Editor and Publisher, critical textual analysis identifies how discourses in the letters reflect or reshape traditional print journalists' self definitions. The result is a catalog of information that shapes an understanding of the letters within the individual ideological framework of the community of people who volunteer their opinions for publication in these journals. The dissertation works to develop a more complete picture of the ideology of traditional print journalists as it is defined in their own words.

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