I'm Grace Loddick, and this is Educating Ourselves in These Difficult Times on ThinkTech Hawaiʻi. Today, we will be discussing college culture abroad and how education has influenced national responses to recent events. My guest today is Brayden Watanabe, a senior at Trinity Western University in Langley, Canada, who was raised in Hawaiʻi, graduating from high school here. He is a business major with a double specialization in accounting and finance with a minor in economics who is also pursuing a CPA or CFA certification. He will be sharing his experiences as an international student and give us some insight into Canadian student culture and how cultural and educational differences create the foundation for how we perceive and respond to global issues. Thank you for being a guest on my show today, Brayden. Thank you for having me. So to provide some context for our viewers today, could you give us a little overview about Trinity Western University? So Trinity Western is a really small university based in Langley, British Columbia, Canada, so that's just right above Seattle, Washington. It's a small school of maybe around 4,000 students, though it's the largest private university in Canada. It's a small Christian university, and overall it's a fairly diverse university with students from over 60 different countries. Wow, that is definitely amazing that you have such a mixing pot of so many people from so many different cultures, and I think that definitely creates a wonderful learning opportunity for us to learn about each other and different perspectives and different cultural practices and norms. What inspired you to choose to go to a college abroad? So initially when I was looking at colleges back in my senior year of high school, I wasn't exclusively looking at universities outside of the U.S., though I was looking at summer schools in Canada as well as the UK. What made me choose Trinity Western was when I went to visit there, how great the sense of community was on campus with just the student body and the way that everyone comes together and dorm life and even commuter life, which I'm a part of now. So building up on the idea of having a community at your university, what have been some of the greatest challenges and maybe surprises you experienced in transitioning from an American educational system to the Canadian education system? I think that the Canadian educational system, especially when it comes to things such as STEM, which is science, technology, math and engineering, is quite a bit more advanced in Canada than it is in the U.S. when speaking about general public high school education. Just because a lot of the funding that comes from education in Canada is subsidized through the federal government through various different forms versus the U.S. They always talk about how a school district's funding comes from only the property taxes in its district, which in a lot of cases actually limit how much funding they can get. There's been a massive global push to help encourage students to pursue STEM because it's often regarded as the most in-demand career positions in our current global state. You mentioned before our show that you actually formerly were a biotechnology major. Did you feel as though the American educational system adequately prepared you for a STEM curriculum at an international school? For me, I find it hard to argue an overall point of view on that when regarding like a U.S. education because the education that I received was from a very small private Christian high school based in Hawaii that was only about 100 students from 7th to 12th grade. So the education that I received there, specifically regarding science and mathematics, I believe was severely lacking, which kind of led me to being not prepared for what I thought biotechnology was going to be even though I have a passion for science and a passion for that. I didn't feel like that was an appropriate career choice for me. Overall, do you feel as though the pace or the rigors of Canadian university life is more rigorous than the American college system? I think it's more, yes, I believe that it's more rigorous simply because our typical semester that we have at my Canadian university lasts only about 12 weeks of course work. So we start the second week of September and we end the first week of December for our fall semesters. So it's quite condensed even though we're fitting in similar course loads as a typical American university. Wow, that is surely a challenge I'm sure having to condense all of that information into such a short period of time. Would you say that overall you felt less prepared when you look at your Canadian counterparts or perhaps other international students as well? I think when I compare my educational quality to those alike such as other Americans at my university or other Canadians at my university, I felt less prepared especially regarding biotechnology simply because my entire biology career in high school was limited to only ninth grade. So not having the developed knowledge of taking biology 12 that most or that several other students that I talked to have the opportunity to take in their junior and junior year of high school, I feel kind of pushed me back a bit. In what ways do you think that the American educational system and curriculum can be improved and do you think that there are certain areas in which we can draw inspiration from Canada or other countries abroad? So I think it's commonly argued especially now more than ever with the whole situation of racial segregation that public school education has to stop coming from funding of that district's property taxes because when you're talking about a district that has the average property tax of a home of only $200,000, when you're comparing that to a district where the average home is $800,000, you're going to see a clear difference in how much funding and resources each school has to provide education equally for all people. Would you say that there seems to be less of a divide in equity of access to education in Canada? Yes, I think so. And in what ways do you think that this lack of equity in education has perhaps prompted our national responses to certain controversial issues recently such as the death of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement, the protests, the riots, the looting. In what ways do you think that our education and culture in the United States has contributed to the way in which we have perceived and responded to these recent events? So I think that racism has always kind of existed in American culture, maybe not in the way that it used to be, but there's still a clear ethnic divide between different ethnicities. And so looking at secondary and post-secondary education institutions, it's just yet another way that we see how the segregation and the gaps still exist by seeing the quality of education that a Caucasian student can receive versus a Black student can receive. Would you say that racism is as prevalent of an issue in Canadian culture and is it addressed in their educational curriculum? So I think racism in Canada, it's kind of a complex topic and it's something that I'm still learning about today. I think now, speaking now about how Canadian culture exists now, that racism isn't as prevalent or isn't as big of an issue as it is in the US. In Canada, their primary minority is Indigenous people, who they refer to as First Nation and so they basically are who Americans refer to as Native Americans. And so just by giving them the title of First Nations, it kind of shows that they were the first people in the region. And to this day, Canada is still kind of, I guess you can say repairing the relationship with Indigenous cultures because of things that they've had in the past, such as residential schools, which separated children from their families in order to kind of shape and conform children into what Canadian society wanted at that time. Do you believe that the First Nations people have responded positively or perhaps appreciate the Canadian response to perhaps the prejudice and the segregation that's been created over time? Do you think that they appreciate being referred to using terminology such as First Nations? I think that those are all positive steps that the Canadian government has taken to repair the damage between, in their relationship. I think that the things that the Canadian federal government have done have been very beneficial to their relationship versus what America has done to try to rebuild our relationship with our minorities. In what ways do you think that the American government can draw inspiration from the Canadian government's response to the issues with First Nations, for example? So I think in regards to the American government, it's a little more difficult of a topic because America is so much larger and of course is everything, the larger something gets, the more expensive something gets. And so with Canada, they were able to, not to pool numbers, not to pool numbers, but they were able to finance this affordably or not affordably, they were able to realistically implement something of that magnitude because they were dealing with a population of only say a million people versus with America. Our minority groups make up a vast bigger percentage of our population than indigenous people make up with the Canadian population. So for us, I think implementing similar movements that Canada has taken such as creating Indian reserves, which we have, and growing those are some positive moves that we can take. You mentioned earlier that Trinity Western University seems to be quite the melting pot with students from over 60 countries. That is impressive. Would you say that having this mixing pot at Trinity Western University has prompted discussion about racism or perhaps appreciation or greater understanding for people from other cultures? I think that's a fair point. Trinity Western has made it quite clear from when I first stepped foot on campus that they were all about acceptance and racial tolerance, which is very positive in today's society. And I think just by creating initiatives such as, or not initiatives, just having professors from various different countries is just yet another way that the university shows that they are against discrimination. Is racism something that's often discussed at your university? For example, do you have any courses specifically for intercultural relations or perhaps identifying prejudices within society? To my knowledge, I know that there are several courses that discuss intercultural relations, primarily targeting Indigenous cultures. However, I don't know much of the, much information on those courses. Brenda, I would definitely love to continue this discussion with you, but we will actually be taking a short break in a moment. Again, I'm Grace Loddick, and you are watching Educating Ourselves in these difficult times on Think Tech Hawaii with my special guest, Brayden Watanabe. We will be back shortly. Aloha, I'm Kisha King, host of Crossroads in Learning on Think Tech Hawaii. On Crossroads in Learning, our guests and I discuss all aspects of education here in Hawaii and throughout the country. You can join us for stimulating conversations to enrich, enliven, and educate. We are streamed live on Think Tech bi-weekly at 4 p.m. on Mondays. Thanks so much for watching our show. We look forward to seeing you then. Aloha. Welcome back to Educating Ourselves in these difficult times with my guest, Brayden Watanabe, senior at Trinity Western University. Welcome back, Brayden. So right before our break, we actually had one of our live viewers send in a question, and they would like to know if there have been any protests in Canada surrounding the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. Great question. So yes, there actually have been several protests. I know of two major ones, one that took place in Vancouver and one that took place in Toronto. One thing to note about the protests that have been happening in Canada as well as other countries around the world, such as France and the UK and Italy, is that these protests outside of the US are more peaceful and are targeted not against their local police for police brutality, but rather against the US embassies for allowing something like this to happen and demanding some sort of change. In what ways do you think that American culture and our educational system has prompted our protests to be particularly violent? Sorry, can you repeat that question? So you mentioned that many of the protests abroad, such as in Canada and Italy and the UK, tended to be more peaceful. Whereas in the United States, the protests tend to be more violent and include things such as looting and rioting. In what ways do you think that our American educational system and our culture has contributed towards America's more violent response in comparison to other nations? So I think because America still has a stigma of as they call it fascism, which is rooted more in the right wing philosophy, we still see remnants of racial stigma against African Americans and people who are viewed different than the majority. And I think something like that is something that has kind of dissipated much quicker in other countries in Europe and in Canada that is likely because they take more of a liberal approach to these issues. And when there are such controversial issues, such as racism in Canada, I remember there was a bit of a scandal a few years ago where the Canadian Prime Minister, they found photos of him having blackface. Did Canada have a similar response to racism in the way in which America responded to racism in regards to George Floyd and the BLM movement? I would have to say no, simply because Canada has shown a lot more effort by both local provincial and federal governments to want to change and break down the walls and the stigmas surrounding racism versus the U.S. has talked about these issues for now years, though there's been no meaningful gain or showing that something is changing. So I think that has kind of led to that. In what ways do you think that the American educational system can be amended to perhaps continue to eliminate prejudice and biases against those of other races or ethnicities? So I remember having a conversation with one of my professors who was from Nigeria back in my first year of university and he talked about how people often, especially teachers, argue that they have what they refer to as color blindness, meaning that they don't see your skin color, that everyone is the same. And he was telling me that he thinks that this is something that's detrimental because you shouldn't have to see everyone as being the same in order to treat everyone the same. He said that you need to have something called racial tolerance, which is that you see everyone as being unique and seeing everyone being themselves. However, you don't treat them differently just because of that. You mentioned earlier in our conversation that racial tolerance is a pretty prevalent sentiment in Canadian culture. In what ways is this embodied in its educational system? Do you think that there's more active discussion on racism and helping to eliminate bias? Is this perhaps something that students are instructed about from a young age in Canada? I think because Canada does address this issue a little more than U.S. does, Canada addresses issues such as racism that it does exist in societies around the world. However, they teach children from a younger age that everyone, though everyone is unique, everyone is made equally. You mentioned earlier that there does seem to be a bit of an issue with lack of equity for access for resources and education in America because of the way in which our funding is allocated for educational systems. How is the funding allocated in the Canadian government for education that enables students to have more equal access to education? So in Canada, it's similarly through property tax, except the property tax, rather than staying locally within the district, all get funneled through the provincial government, which then distributes that funding equally based on student population and student density, so that each student is viewed equally and having equal opportunity within the public school education system. With your business and economics background, how would you suggest that the United States amend the way in which funding is currently allocated for their educational system to help create greater access and equity to education? So I think adopting a similar method that Canada has taken on would be one step that the U.S. could take by allowing each individual state to use a collective fund of based on property taxes to distribute equally amongst all of its residents and all of its citizens in order to create an equal opportunity for everyone, and that would be one method. I think that throughout the summer, the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the death of George Floyd, is going to continue to be on the front headlines of the news. When you return back to Canada in the fall, do you think that there will be greater discussion on campus regarding the Black Lives Matter movement and perhaps better targeting racial injustices? I think that that's something that could be a possibility. Again, as I mentioned before, racism isn't as widely talked about of a topic in Canada as it is in the U.S., mainly because racism isn't something that's as prevalent as it is in the U.S. So I think there will be remnants of discussions that still exist between community, sorry, my university community on campus, as well as even provincially or federally in Canada. However, I don't think it'll be based on anger and frustration that is in the U.S. As an international student who is living abroad in Canada, have you experienced any instances of cultural or racial misunderstanding at your university? I have had a couple minor instances of something like that, but it wasn't racial discrimination, it was more just misinterpretation. How would you say that our college curriculums can better prepare students to handle global issues such as racism and not only beyond racism, but just being better prepared as a global citizen to successfully navigate controversial issues like this? Do you think that our schools and education systems, especially for post-secondary education, are currently adequately preparing students to navigate these issues? And if not, how do you think that we can better improve our education system for that? I would say that our secondary and post-secondary systems don't adequately prepare students to having these hard conversations like we're having now. You see so many instances on YouTube or on TV of news reporters going to college campuses around the U.S. and having discussions on this and you see how little people have been educated on these topics. And so I think there needs to be more of a emphasis and a focus on universities doing their diligence to educate their students in order to better prepare them to kind of change society and change the future for the U.S. Would you say that this responsibility falls solely on universities or would you say that this responsibility also falls on other government sectors or perhaps beyond post-secondary education? I think the responsibility kind of falls on all of us. Like we have the responsibility to, if we have the responsibility as elementary teachers to kind of shape children into that. In middle school you have the responsibility of growing their education and growing their knowledge on these topics and especially in high school and post-secondary. You have the responsibility of really shaping the students into knowledgeable people and citizens. Would you say that there are particularly any countries or cultures that you've encountered where you think that there are certain things that we can learn from them in particular to help bolster our educational system or the way in which we navigate these complex global issues? So I know so Canada has taken a good approach but I've also heard that Germany has taken a fairly good approach to their educational system by allowing for all students to basically use what's called school vouchers to attend their choice of school be it public or private so that they still get their choice of education will also be given an equal opportunity to everyone else and to take another approach like that which I know some states in the US have tried to adopt or have considered adopting would be one step that we could take. Do you think that your experiences as a student abroad and living internationally have helped perhaps like shift your worldview in regards to issues such as racial injustice, the Black Lives Movement or just misunderstanding between cultures or perhaps adopting more cultural communication competencies? Would you say that you would recommend living abroad as a good experience for people who perhaps want to gain a different perspective and a new worldview? I think that yeah living abroad or even if you don't want to take that big of a move living out of state for a year is just a great way to kind of broaden your perspective and your worldview because I know for me coming from Hawaii which even though it's a very liberal state I grew up having more conservative principles. As I moved off to college in Canada which is very liberal and a much bigger city than Honolulu in Hawaii, my worldview and my opinions have definitely changed within the past several years that I've been attending the school. Braden I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to share about your experiences living abroad. It was amazing hearing about how your time living as an international student has helped to shift your global perspective. Again I just wanted to thank you Braden and thank you for watching Think Tech Hawaii. We hope that today's program shed some light on what life is like as an international student and what we can learn from other cultures and educational systems. Again I'm Grace Lottick and see you every other Thursday at noon. Aloha.


We're live. Hi. I'm Dazza Greenwood, a scientist at MIT Media Lab, and I run law.mit.edu there and this is a lecture for our upcoming computational law workshop course at MIT something that we've done every every January for the last four years and With us today is a lecture so good That he lectured last year and we want to back this year for Bit of a deeper dive in his topic. I want to introduce Chris Berent, a partner at Drinker Biddle and a colleague and a friend to talk about the concept and the practice of computational Contracts such a critical part of the law and perhaps some of your experience Applying and practicing law such that these computational contracts can support and reflect Your deals and transactions in the energy market as an example With that Chris if you if you'd like to maybe introduce yourself a little more of your background and please jump right in and thank you for joining Thank You Dazza. That's a kind introduction My name is Chris Berent as Dazza mentioned I'm a partner at Drinker Biddle and Reeth I run the advanced energy practice here My my practice my team focuses mainly on transactional matters and the advanced energy space microgrids advanced clean energy systems DER aggregations basically think of smart grid applications more intelligent assets that are more flexible more dispatchable and When we're not doing deals, we are working regulatory dockets in front of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission State Public Utility Commission and so on focused on grid modernization and advancing the tariff environment and the rural environment so that we can Have better deployment of more advanced more cost efficient higher environmental Performing energy systems. I got to know Dazza in my work with clients in both the energy and environmental markets Regarding applications for enterprise blockchain automated contract systems smart contract systems and so on so Computational contracts automated contract systems smart contracts What are we talking about when we're talking about all this? Well, it's certainly more than just the contract account on Ethereum The ability to establish contractual relationships that have automated properties that can look at market conditions asset statuses and Make decisions to optimize asset portfolios is something that extends Well beyond blockchain although blockchain technology offers a recordation and a Ledger that can support these automated contract systems Which are increasingly taking in more data analyzing more data and taking Folks who are using them to ever more complex positions and opportunities and so on so a Computational contract. What what does that look like? Well at the most simple level. It's a writing Well, you might say but what happens if that contract exists electronically on servers whether it's distributed or semi-distributed Whether it is, you know permissioned or you know wide open for anyone to download the clients You know to start up a node and so on Regardless of how it exists If that contract exists in writing even if it is electronic it is still widely viewed as binding you can have An email a bind two parties together You can have contracts electronically signed. I'm sure many of you have used a lot of the popular features out there That have evolved. They're the last several years like doc you signed and others to design electronic agreements and Electronic writing can bind just as a a written copy could could bind so much of the question as to the application you know the legal enforceability of smart contracts Computational contracts automated contract systems whether or not they reside And execute on blockchains or not Is fairly solid in that they're electronic writings and if that the intent is there and if you have all of the elements That allow for a contract to be formed within your jurisdiction You will have a contract form And in many cases it's a lot easier to do than folks expect in terms of creating a binding contract And if you miss a few of the elements And you have enough of the core elements in that contract You'll have the jurisdictions common law or civil law system fill in the gaps And so here in the United States that usually means that the uniform commercial code would kick in and address it and you know You eat a you know the uniform electronic transfer acts Uniform electronic acts that are out there that allow for those electronic writings to be binding You know really don't have too much of Question marks around them as to the enforceability of that signature of that you know that you know binding nature of those agreements so Much of what we're left with is really are the Recordation systems around smart contracts adequate is the vehicle itself and the mechanism around a smart contract or automated contract system You know adequate to perform in the market in operational environment What I've done traditionally is help clients you have complex asset portfolios Optimize those portfolios and what I mean by a complex asset portfolio is you have assets that in any given You know hour of the day, you know day week or so on can Take different operational positions Some of the best examples of this are Integrated energy and manufacturing facilities think industrial parks where you could have someone own Generation on site combination of solar storage high efficiency co-generation you could also have Manufacturing production that's happening on site at any given time that industrial park Might find it more lucrative to make the widgets that the manufacturer is producing Because they can sell them under contract at that time of production for a higher value Then they might have not making the widgets and say doing something like Providing the power that the manufacturing facility would have used out to the power market If you have a gas natural gas fire co-generation plant on site You know that plant might decide that instead of producing power and steam It's more lucrative at that time to sell out its natural gas to another party or sell out some natural gas Transportation position to another party The natural gas commodity and the the transportation rights are two different things That that same facility could also decide to work and make power But not just sell power into the power market. It could sell ancillary services frequency regulation. It could sell Spinning reserve services. It could sell any number of different goods and products and services So much of what I've been working on Over the years is helping clients where you have these highly flexible and dispatchable groups of assets I've I've worked with folks to essentially Look at how can we create? complex multi-point arbitrages to maximize the the value of how those assets can position in any given a market condition and You know market day so, you know, how do we do this? Well from a legal standpoint, it's more simple than you might expect We use what are called master contracts Master contract vehicles are very common. You have a lot of model agreements in the energy sector In the manufacturing sector other sectors Where you set up a master agreement that basically says that the parties agree to these terms and conditions when we undertake a Transaction and that the transactions themselves are governed by confirmations which are basically, you know short descriptions of here's how much I'm selling you at what price and when Where you take where are you taking delivery and what's the nature of that product? Or that service that I'm selling you That type of master agreement To create an automatic contract system You often will stack several different types of master agreements that focus on the different markets Products and services that can be accessed by that complex asset portfolio I was talking about either a group of assets physically located or a portfolio of assets spread out, you know around the country around the world you can stack those master agreements together and the confirmation process can get handled Computationally on an automated basis What you can do is you can have the master agreements say that under certain conditions I have the right to sell you this product or service or buy from you this product or service and what We often have looked at doing is creating what's called a married order algorithm And what the married order algorithm basically does is just create scenarios Based on the different types of positioning that that asset portfolio can a step can take and what it does is it pulls from What some people have referred to oracles what other people would call simply market marks That are you know signals in the market this market is pricing here. This service is pricing there and so on Calculates those in Runs all of the various scenarios that that asset portfolio could take in any given time period Based on all the various market conditions across multiple different markets some of them unrelated And then we'll basically rank on a dollar basis. What is the most profitable? Overall positioning of this group of assets given all the various markets that they can access and sometimes it takes You know more than one asset to truly access that market Sometimes a market won't be lucrative unless I get a certain amount of threshold of volume into it Sometimes a service discount doesn't kick in unless I'm buying a certain amount so it's the combination of different resources that help to make all of this possible and what a married order algorithm basically helps folks do is Rank given all the various market conditions. What is the most lucrative scenario? That is physically functional operationally That accesses various combinations of markets It might be in anyone given day that the best thing is to just make as many widgets as you can It might be in another given day that it might be the best thing you can do is produce as much power and sell as much power The wholesale power market as you can it can vary it, but it's also often fine combinations of different market offerings service purchasing and so on and so what the married order algorithm does is assesses all those Those those potential permutations based on the various market conditions. Does it automatically? builds the scenarios ranks the scenarios based on revenue possible and then reports back out saying This is the most lucrative positioning of our asset portfolio today or in many cases in the energy sector We're talking about the next day. It's a day ahead market and then basically that Algorithm kicks out to the various systems Electronic confirmations to the various parties the different master agreements Kicks out electronic confirmation saying I want to buy this much natural gas I want to sell this much power to the power market I want to produce this much widgets and sell them to this customer this customer for this this, you know shipment in order as opposed to this one and Essentially those confirmations can flow out to multiple counterparties get processed and then come back Now this is similar to what a lot of people are used to in the security space And so on when you think of things like limit orders where you tell your broker Hey, when the market reaches this point sell or when the market reaches this point buy But what this what's different here is that? the amount of data information coming in across multiple markets to run All of the various scenarios rank them in the merit order algorithm and then kick out a set of confirmations that reflects a Complex multi-point arbitrage of your assets into the most valuable markets that's something that's getting increasingly more complex and When we're what we're seeing in the power sector is a push towards more distributed energy More energy at the distribution level more energy resources Generations storage, you know demand response in particular at the building campus, you know You know a level at the district level more micro grids What we're what we're seeing in the energy sector in particular is the opportunity for there to be more complex arbitrages happening amongst more asset portfolios at different times as well as consumers Pulling together and creating new market layers trading amongst themselves Prosumer is one of the terms that we've been using in the power sector But all it really means is that instead of just buying power you are actively buying and selling power Utilizing your own assets that you have on your building often solar panels coupled with battery storage And I have a number of clients that have done some very interesting things in that space and who are actually opening up with DLT enabled apps New market layers and the power sector that haven't really existed before what's new products and services That go with those new market layers that haven't existed before And all of that drives greater opportunity for efficiency in the system Because unfortunately our energy system traditionally is widely inefficient From you know at for whether it's at end use in terms of how we use energy whether it's at production much of what's characterizing the future in the advanced energy world is not just Renewable energy clean energy battery storage, but it's also high efficiency combined heat and power systems that operate in the upper 80 percent on their energy efficiency as opposed to the lower 40 percent on traditional big power plants and so on and so We really have an evolution and why am I talking to you about these computational? contracting principles and multi-point arbitrage systems You know in in this class with Daza, it's not just because they're interesting computational You know ways to undertake contractual relationships legally It's also because the the breadth of the datasets the aggregation in the nesting that can occur at the you know at the Asset grouping portfolio level and then amongst different arms length third parties who are aggregating the you know similar assets into a portfolio voluntarily and so on or through an aggregating entity and Such we're just talking about large large datasets Multiple different parties and again some of the value propositions We've seen with the LT technology in terms of the ability to have certain trustless transactions the ability to have immutable ledgers The ability to run Faster settlements because settlement speed is still not really a characteristic of blockchains right now But the ability to run faster settlements that record those complex arbitrage positions And not only the strikes and when the confirmations execute But also what is the statuses of the various markets and other conditions that are playing? How does all that data you know fit together and and what do those arbitrage points look like? As they cycle through the day and the markets change and volatility moves through the various systems different needs arise In short, it's a lot of data and that's why having Distributed ledger technology can be a big help and in particular what I've been working on with folks is not the full bore Fully distributed, you know, anyone can get down to load a node view But rather because we're dealing with things that are utilities that are providing You know, you know important goods and services We're not, you know, we're not looking at it as a you know Just kind of what can happen on a wild west basis, but rather we're looking at enterprise blockchain technology permissioned blockchains semi-distributed nodes You're looking at hashing algorithms that are going to be running on things that are relevant to the underlying markets Products goods and services that they're serving as opposed to just who can run basic math the fastest And therefore you're going to see these enterprise blockchains really being run and set up among groups of market participants You know who have all of the other You know, let's call it, you know gears in the machine that allow for What's happening from the enterprise blockchain dynamic to articulate through to actual market operations market trades? And you know all the way down to the SCADA systems That are actually telling specific assets ramp up ramp down fire up fire down and so on so It's it's a brave new world. We're going into and there certainly is a lot of interest and dynamics Around how the energy sector can benefit From this technology But I tell a lot of people that especially when you look at large international manufacturing Corporations and others who have a history of running Operations facilities where there's multiple different assets power production manufacturing natural resource extraction you know any number of whether it's a You know telecom, you know you name it There's any number of various applications that can go on a lot of those industries have already been running Early versions of automated contract systems and that as we get better recordation better computational dynamics running In our contractual space, you know, you're just going to see those becoming more complex with more and more data applying But there's still a wonderful amount of white space. I have run into clients That are large international entities that are running, you know Substantial operations holding companies with with many different operational subsidiaries and sometimes those entities have yet to fully explore What types of multi-point arbitrages and portfolio optimization? Strategies are available to them within their own portfolio sometimes until we start that analytic view of Where are you doing transactions and what data are you sourcing to do transactions? Sometimes we we find out that some of the best data available is with another affiliate and you had no idea And that that other affiliate might have a arbitrage capability that you weren't aware of that when put together at the portfolio level can make a big difference so Overall, it's just better ways to use more data But from a computational legal standpoint I would encourage people to think of computational contracts as things that combine and part of the part of the challenge here Is just making sure that when those venture into Let's call it traditional Legal areas where we have mechanisms beyond just the signature Notarization as an example on let's say we were doing a lease long-term lease a deal for For a new facility, you know, you're gonna want to get those needs at least is notarized How that notarization can get done from electronic basis is still something for the future And to get determined And who knows maybe the Secretary of State's office is in the future will figure out that collectively they have a decent interest in creating their own enterprise blockchain but As things stand now you still need to have lawyers involved to know what boxes need to get checked To get deals done binding and enforceable But there are more opportunities out there, especially in the operational in the market side Where often all you need is a binding signature from an authorized officer to get a binding deal And you don't need a lot of the traditional Notarization title filings and so on that need to happen physically In hard copy, you know a locally or at the state level or whatnot a lot of what happens operationally in the markets can get done simply with electronic signature And if you're willing to to get creative and take a holistic view of your asset portfolio There's a lot of people who are realizing that a DLT technology And looking to begin to automate their contracting contracting systems can open up these multi-point arbitrages and bring You know substantial Incremental revenue to existing asset portfolios. And so with that Daza, I'll I'll kick it back to you to see if any questions Okay. Thanks, Chris. That was Spectacular, I appreciate you taking the time to lay out some of the basic building blocks of computational contracts and how it kind of fits into this concept of computational law and and the sort of extension from You know people are familiar with high-speed trading and the heavy automation that's occurred in the security Markets and being able to show how that is playing out in the energy markets Is is really helpful. So before I ask a question just a couple of them a couple more housekeeping matters When you say DLT for those of you that may not be familiar that stands for distributed ledger technology Which is another take on blockchain but using but really when you're applying the blockchain not so much as a log of cryptocurrency Kind of transactions, but you know, perhaps as a ledger for other types of transactions Like including fiat currency or perhaps units of energy or you know other types of commercial Exchange of rights to some asset. So that's one thing. The other thing was you use the phrase complex Multi-point arbitrage a few times and I think from the context people can probably get it But it would be useful if you could just take, you know, like five or ten seconds just to Share what you mean by that phrase sure well at the simplest level of an arbitrage is a way to Reposition what you're doing to access one market or one client versus another market or another client It's the act think of it as as taking a good or a service that's going to be provided Or consumed and pivoting to another one and having the legal rights and operational capability to be able to do so A classic one in the power sector is that if one fuel for a power plant is getting very Expensive and that power plant is able to fire on two different fuels. They will arbitrage and switch to firing with another fuel Another example is I might sit on the edge of two different regional power markets And I might decide at any given time that I'm going to put my power into one versus another The ability to make that decision and not be bound to one offtake Is a example of an arbitrage and the simplest ones You know are are basically You know do I go here or do I go there the a complex multi-point arbitrage looks at the overall value of assets in a group Or in a portfolio in a manner to say What are all the variety of positions that these assets can take to physically provide different services to different markets? To different customers and then basically says Looking at all those various scenarios pulling from maybe five six seven eight, you know or more different market conditions What is the overall optimal position for that asset grouping at any one time and the complexity is Running all through all those different markets through all those various different positions the different ways you can position that asset And then saying at any given time Here's the most lucrative positioning, you know for those assets in the different markets I'll note. I have clients who run the same merit order algorithm, but they don't do it for What is the highest revenue basis for the asset? They do it on what is the way that we can make a decent revenue And what is the way that we can position the asset portfolio for the lowest level of carbon intensity? In other words they operate their micro grids and other assets in a manner to reduce the overall amount of carbon Admissions that they're putting out so there's different ways you can put rule sets in these merit order algorithms Maybe you have one supplier who's favored more than another for whatever reason for other affiliate reasons So that you program it to give them more points to the scenarios that favor selling to them or buying from them But the the complex arbitrage simply refers to the ability to put all of your assets in a Large variety of different positions as opposed to saying Two or three different ways I can position all of this when you zoom out to the portfolio There can be hundreds of different positions that all of your assets can take at any given time and the most lucrative ones Will be based on whatever the markets are At at any given time and those markets those market marks will get automatically pulled into the algorithm Through the you know through the the merit order system that's developed And those can get developed on on you know basic Excel spreadsheets and people can do that and and run a simple ranking Algorithm to rank the output of different tabs and then there's also other programs In such that that folks have developed that can just do a simple kind of scenario ranking where you have manual scenario Formulation and you're just basically kicking in numbers, but The future is going to show these arbitrages does a happening in at more Portfolio more aggregated levels with lots more volumes of data with lots bigger data sets and with you know a Kind of Kevin Bacon like you know new relationship amongst affiliates and others Especially at holding companies as they begin to figure out and better analyze What not only are the goods and services that are flowing through my different subsidiaries and the different affiliates But what are also the data that they're taking in at different stages in different levels? I think much of the future of enterprise blockchain and asset portfolio optimization is going to be started with Exercises at the holding company level Looking at what are the data flows product and service flows that are coming in throughout all of our Portfolio companies throughout all of our subsidiaries and so on Analyzing that on a roll-up basis and then looking at where are the common data sets? Where are the where are the common flows? I think a lot of people are going to realize that there's you know a lot of just efficiency and savings You know from becoming more aware and having better visibility into their overall asset data Operations and how that relates to goods and services in market position. So a long answer But multi-point arbitrages are just going to get more complex the more assets that are involved and the more markets that are involved Awesome. Thanks. I appreciate that because some people may not be familiar with with you know What that phrase means so that's very useful. So So it's a sort of synthesize and and start to wrap when when you talk about merit order algorithms and data sets and Scenarios some other words that people might be familiar with there in data science would be like Prioritization for an optimization algorithm of some kind and and in terms of the data You know the first two lectures that that students will have seen by now I think are the high-level overview of computational law from a talk I gave in China and then a more recent sort of Survey of computational law in a deep dive into a open source platform called doc assemble that Co-instructor Brian Wilson did a few days ago and what we really tried to focus there on data and Computation to create more automated functions and flows That are legal For different legal instruments, I think to me in my world the classic legal instrument is a contract Obviously you have wills and deeds and you know on and on down the line, but contracts uber Alice You know rid of Hammurabi forward. Yeah, and there's so common all across the economy and society And so I'd like to encourage students to be thinking Uh In the context of what you've just said Chris about what other types of contracts can you imagine where there could be data inputs that would Where you can where we could construct a smart legal contract of some type that can have some listeners, you know over interfaces For events, you know such as you know a market mark as as Chris said or You know an inventory or whatever just be creative in the context here so that it could the event It basically could construe like going through a threshold or some type of data as an event that would trigger a process That would you know could be something like sell or price it this way or send a proposal or whatever Or do this and then that and then And and and share your ideas in the pigeonhole a little Engagement widget that you're probably seeing right now. I'm Chris's session page And then upvote on the ideas that you think are most interesting and that you'd like to do a deeper dive in when we get to class so So think about the data think about the the underlying legal context and How you could use listeners and events and triggers for more automated processes that Don't simply that aren't just the technical layer that's disconnected from the contract But that that are the contracts. So how do we structure these contracts so that they're very explicitly Supporting and reflecting these automated processes and then as Chris said Quite rightly and we're going to get more into this in a future lecture, you know, the traditional components of contracts like a scent through a signature and The clauses in terms of a contract absolutely can be expressed electronically thanks to electronic transactions act and e signatures and National commerce in global and national commerce act in the US and all the equivalent legislation from unto Charles model on Electronic commerce in other jurisdictions And what we'll do is we'll get a little bit creative about how to structure the transactions and structure the deals So that we're meeting all the legal requirements, but then seeing how far we can Go with with more creative Adoption and adaptation of this technology. So it so it is an expression of the legal contract itself So everybody be thinking about that no take and what Chris just told you is street legal I'm like he's done this many times in the energy industry This is not futuristic and then the last thing I wanted to highlight is it does not require Cosmic technology when you said spreadsheet, I almost went off mute and I didn't want to interrupt your flow but amen like a spreadsheet especially these online spreadsheets Google sheets and and Office 360 they have interfaces Application programming interfaces that can automatically update data and you know sell by sell basis and sheet by sheet basis and that can send Triggers or it can send information and can be interrogated by other services to see what is the current value of a given You know kind of a number or or other information in the sheet And so we can begin to prototype some of these computational contracts using spreadsheets And it's not different in kind from what one would do by building a huge Python or or you know or or blockchain based automated system so With that I want to thank you Chris very much for for joining us from your from your Washington, DC office there And and sharing your knowledge and and I can promise that as we start to get the feedback from students and from others In our community to your lecture and they start to brainstorm ideas or have other questions or comments We'll wrap up. We'll wrap those up using our own merit order algorithm, including the upvoting On on pigeonhole and ensure those with you and we'd be very very grateful For any feedback that you have on on the input from our students. Yeah, and I look forward to it. Thanks, Taza Okay, thanks, so we'll see you online


Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to Sussex Vision Series, and today we are delighted to introduce our next speaker, Professor Weiwei, from the University of Chicago. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the Sussex Vision Series. Sorry. Sorry. So, Professor Weiwei, can you hear me? Professor Weiwei is actually an associate professor with Turner in the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Chicago. And in terms of academic background, she did her postdoctoral research at the University of California in Berkeley with Professor Marla Feuler. And her PhD was carried out at the Watson School of Biological Science at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York under the supervision of Professor Robert Tomalino. So, during this stage, she studied many aspects of synaptic plasticity, and nowadays she will be presenting a really interesting talk, which is titled, Context-Dependent Motion Processing in the Retina. So, Weiwei, thanks a lot for accepting our invitation, and it is a pleasure for us to host you today. Thank you so much, Jose, for the kind introduction. I'm going to share my slides. You can share now your screen if you want. Yeah, does it work? Is it working? Okay, one second. Okay, I'll share again. You have to share. No, yes, it's perfect. Okay. It's working? Yeah, brilliant. Okay, thank you again. So, a general goal of my group is to understand the neural basis of sensory processing. And the influential conceptual framework for analyzing neural circuits is David Marl's three levels of analysis. So the first level is computation. So what does the circuit compute? What's the function of the circuit? Next is the algorithm. So what is the algorithm used for carrying out such a computation? And then lastly, how is the algorithm implemented by biophysical substrates in the nervous system, such as synapses, dendrites and neural networks? And in this framework, in a visual system, a prominent computation is the direction selectivity. And direction selectivity is first discovered by human whistle in the cat primary visual cortex. And they find that some cells in the visual cortex have a directionally tuned to moving stimulus. So they fire most strongly when the stimulus is moving in one direction, but minimally when the stimulus moves in the opposite direction. And a few years later, direction selectivity was characterized by Barton Levick in the very early stage of visual processing in the rabbit retina. So with many years of studies, we now know that in the retina, there are mainly two groups of direction selective ganglion cell types, the on and off types, that are also tuned to the direction of image motion. And also very exciting discoveries recently in a primate retina by the anesthetics group and nays group at the University of Washington, showing that these direction selective cells are also present in the primates. But in this talk, I will focus on the on off type of direction selective ganglion cells. And so in this slide, this is on off DSGC in a mouse retina. So here is the top view of the dendrites. And this is the side view. So these cells have two layers of dendrites one in the on sub lamina and the other in the off sub lamina of the inner plex from layer IPL. And here's example tuning curve plotting the number of spikes as a function of motion direction. So the arrow in the middle is the vector some pointing to the preferred direction, and the opposite direction is a null direction. And there are four sub types of off DS ganglion cells in the retina, and they their preferred directions aligned two cardinal axis vertical and horizontal axis. So these cells projects to major visual pathways centrally. So the, they, their actions leave the retina and project to the, the shell of the door so LGN, where, and then from LGN, the information is further conveyed to the visual cortex. Many studies looking at how the information from those off DS ganglion cells are used by the downstream pathways. And so another major target of those cells are the superior clipless. So here, the relationship between the retina and the clipless is a bit simpler. So in a collaborative study with Stacy Kahn's group. We're exploring this relationship. So JC group found that the retina inputs to the direction selective clicker neurons direction. So, so the direction selective clicker neurons receive tuned retina inputs. So when we use conditional knockout mouse line where the retinal direction selectivity is selectively disrupted. JC group found that the direction selectivity in the clipless is impaired, indicating that the direction selectivity in the clipless is inherited from the, from the retina. So these cells has been a classical model to study direction selectivity and the underlying neural mechanisms. So there are many multiple mechanism that that all contribute to the direction selectivity of those cells. And the key one of the key mechanism is the now direction inhibition. So in this slide, I'm, I'm, I will just briefly introduce this, this, the mechanism of the now direction inhibition. So this is an example, spiking activity from off DS ganglion cells, when the bar is moving in a preferred direction, use, we see a lot of spiking, but in the opposite direction, the self doesn't fire. And then when we measure the inhibitory current of the cell, we see that the inhibitory inputs to the cell is directionally tuned in the now direction. They are long and fast, so that it can veto excitation and suppress spiking, but in the preferred direction, the inhibition is weak and delayed to allow max firing. And the source of this inhibitory current comes from the emicrin cell called starburst emicrin cells. So these cells form government urgic synapses to the direction selective ganglion cells. So starburst cell and ganglion cells receive light evoked glutamatergic input from this vertical for the receptor to bipolar cell pathway. When the bar is moving in the now direction of the ganglion cell, the starburst are released maximum amount of Gabba onto the ganglion cell, and this is underlies this now direction inhibition. So to summarize this in a simplified way within this Mars three levels of framework. So the computation of the circuit is, is to compute the direction of visual motion. And it use an algorithm of now direction inhibition. And this now direction inhibition is implemented by the direction selective Gabba release at the synapses between the starburst emicrin cells and the ganglion cells. But in this talk, I will move away a little bit from this implementation of directions activity. But rather, I'd like to showcase a few recent examples from our lab showing that there are many context dependent phenomenon occurring at all three levels of the circuitry at the computation level at the algorithm level and at the implementation level. And there are three scenarios that we particularly looked into one is when the background of the visual motion is noisy. So in this case, this, such as in this example the duck is moving through this glistening water. The second scenario is when the motion trajectory is interrupted by occluders in the scene what happens to the ganglion cell response and what are the underlying mechanisms that mediates those response. And then this, the third mechanism, the third scenario is how the ganglion cell response is affected by by prior visual experience. And then by three brilliant former grad students in the lab. So the first one, the noise project is done by Christian, who is now a postdoc at UW in front Ricky's lab. And then the second project was done by Jennifer Dean, who is now a postdoc at Harvard with Chris Harvey, and then the final project was led by Lindsay, who is now the postdoc at young dance lab at Berkeley. So I will just briefly summarize the, the conclusions of the first two and and focus on the last story which is just published last week at journal of neuroscience. Okay, so first, this is a summary slide for the noise study. So we found that in the retina for this direction selective circuit that is dedicated to compute motion direction. So there is a neural mechanism that that mediates the noise resilience of this motion detection. So when the background have noise, the directions activity can be preserved over a wide range of noise levels.  So with the connection with Rob Smith at U Penn, we figure out that the, the, this disinhibitory motif mediates noise resilience using algorithm that is not disinhibition. So instead of disinhibition, this motif preserve, preserve motion evoked inhibition. And this surprise, this, you know, this is initially quite surprising to us, but we found that the visual noise in the background will engage in a specific network dynamics. And that interacts with synaptic plasticity mechanism between the Stubbers and ganglion cells. So basically the interaction between network dynamics and synaptic plasticity can invert the algorithm of this canonical disinhibitory motif. So that instead of disinhibition, it can mediate. It can preserve inhibition instead. And in the second project, Jen looked at how on off DS ganglion cells respond to moving stimulus, if their, if the motion trajectory is interrupted by occluders. For example, instead of this just continuous moving bars or drifting gradings. If the moving stimulus is occluded by stationary objects, or a moving object emerged from a cruder. So first of all, this project was in collaboration with my theory colleague Stephanie Palmer and her former undergrad Albert Chen, who help us with the theoretical analysis, and also with David Burson who help us with connectomic analysis on the underlying circuitry. So the take all message is that when the moving stimulus is moving in a continuous trajectory along a continuous trajectory, we have this canonical computation of the direction of the moving objects, and this is implemented by the now direction by the Stubbers DS inhibition. So this is the, the normal DS mechanisms. But when the stimulus is moving. When the trajectory is interrupted, then the population of DS ganglion cells, transiently switch from encoding the direction of motion into encoding the spatial location of the motion interruption, and this is suggested by the theoretical analysis by Stephanie's group. And this is implemented by a neural mechanism that involves a spatial displacement of the accessory separate field of those ganglion cells. And because during interrupted motion. And because of this spatial displacement of receptive fields at the side of the motion interruption. The, so the two DS ganglion cell populations that are tuned to the opposite motion directions. But transient synchrony because the, the, the ganglion cells that are normally tuned to the opposite direction of the motion can fire now direction response at the side of motion interruption. So there is a synchronous firing between oppositely tuned ganglion cell populations but only at the, at the side of motion interruption. So this local synchrony is very beneficial is very salient is very detectable, and is really help, helpful for encoding or pinpointing the precise location in during the motion interruption. And one way to think about this is that the population response of the ganglion cells that tunes to the two directions of the motion axes will normally encode the direction of the moving object. But at the side of motion interruption, this population response will transiently switching from encoding mode direction to encoding location, which could be beneficial for the animals survival. So the for the rest of my talk, I'd like to focus on, on the recent project we, we, which look at how the DS ganglion cells response is influenced by prior visual experience. And this is again, in collaboration with Robert Smith at up and led by a former grad student Lindsay in the lab. So the question we, we ask is, how, how is DS ganglion cell response influenced by by prior visual simulation. And the initial reason we want to look at this question is by the anecdote, anecdotal observation in the lab. So when we started recording from when we start recording from a retina we always have a set protocol so we'll first test the lie responsiveness of the retina by showing a spot like a flashing spot to make sure the retina is lie responsive the tissue is healthy. And then we show we start to do a tuning curve from the DS ganglion cells by showing moving bars for example. And after the tuning curve we usually show the flashing spot again to check whether, you know, the cell is still there is whether the tissue is still a responsive. But, but, you know, everyone in the lab has has the impression that when we first show the flashing spot, the ganglion cell response moderately. But after the tuning curve was moving stimulus, then if we show the flashing spot again, we all think the flash response become more robust and stronger. But this is all anecdotal Erwin sees that, but when Lindsay joined the lab she decided to study this phenomenon more systematically. She designed an induction protocol to induce this type of sensitization. So, so what she did is she show a test spot. This is a very weak spot to elicit moderate response in the ganglion cells and the test spots is delivered every four seconds with one second on time. So after a period of testing spots, we have this baseline farm rate to the flashing response. And then we. So she showed induction stimulus. This could be drifting, drifting gratings or contrast reversing gratings or moving spots. And both all these induction stimuli can induce sensitization. So after this induction stimulus she should use the test box again to test the sensitivity of the ganglion cells to to light flashes. So here is an example response from a dorsal DS ganglion cells. So here upper panel is the farm rate, the lower panel is the spiking raw spiking trace. The black is the before the induction stimulus the red is after the induction stimulus. You can see that before the induction stimulus we have this baseline on and off response from this ganglion cells, but after this 20 seconds of induction stimulus, both the on and off response is stronger. And we also see the appearance of a sustained firing we caught we caught that sustained component after the induction. But if we check this in the ventral ganglion cells, we only see the sensitization of the off response, but we didn't see the appearance of the sustained components, and we also didn't see a sensitization of the on response. So as to here's a schematic, the ventral cells, their respective fields are in the upper visual field, and the dorsal cells have receptive fields in the lower visual field. And we quantified the sensitization with index, which is the normalized difference between the response after the sensitization and before the sensitization. So for index of zero, so there's no sensitization those there's no change in, in the sensitivity for index, more than zero, there is sensitization for index less than zero is adaptation. So here's a summary. So for the off response, we can see both doors on the ventral cells show sense that sensitized off response. And but for the on response, we only see sensitization in the dorsal cells but not in the ventral cells, and also only in the dorsal cells we see the appearance of a sustained component following sensitization. And just to summarize again, so in dorsal ganglion DS ganglion cells, both on and off responses sensitized, and there is a sustained component. And but in the ventral cells only off responses sensitize and there's no sustained component. And here is just example showing that this phenomenon is transient and reversible.  And then we test again to to and to see the sensitize response. And then we stopped the protocol for a while and then the cell will quickly go back to the baseline for it. And then we can induce sensitization again in the second trial, and then wait a bit and then the cells for it go back to baseline, and then we can induce it again and again. And then we also look at the timing of this phenomenon. And so here we use the testing spot with increasing intervals after induction to see what's the maximum interval that we can still see the sanitize response. So, we see that without continuous testing, the sanitize response after induction stimulus will return to the baseline in in five to 15 seconds. And then the after induction stimulus if we keep showing the testing spot at, for example, the five second intervals, then the sense that the sensitization will remain as long as a testing spot is always delivered. So, so next with Lindsay looked into the synaptic mechanisms underlying the sensitization. She want to know whether the increased sensitivity after the induction stimulus is due to enhanced excitation or due to decrease inhibition. So for this she look at the both the sub threshold membrane depolarizations by looking at the PSPs. This is after the spiking was digitally removed from the trace. So we can you can see that compared to the before induction traces, the red trace which is after induction. For the dorsal cells, she see sustained depolarization in the baseline and then also more deprived response for the on and off. But for the ventral cells, she only see sustained in sanitized off response for the PSPs. And then she also recorded EPSCs, which is the gluten motorgic input from on and off bipolar cells. And she found that after sanitization, the dorsal cells have a sustained depolarized sustained increase in the gluten motorgic EPSCs and also enhanced on off transient response. But for the ventral EPSCs, she didn't see the sustained component consistent with the lack of sustained spiking. And she saw the sensitized light evoked response. So here's the quantification. Again, showing only dorsal cells have a sustained component. But, but, but it's not, which is not present in a ventral cells. So, so it seems that this sanitized response in a ganglion cells is due to enhanced excitation from the bipolar cell excitation. And then next she tested whether the sensitized response in the ganglion cells requires synaptic input, or can she just simply depolarized ganglion cells by electrical current injection to mimic the sanitization. So what she did is she first recorded DS ganglion cell activity during this induction stimulus. So this is current clamp recordings, showing that the memory potential response to the testing spot. And then during the induction stimulus, this is drifting gratings for 20 seconds. And then the following by followed by the testing spot. And then she clipped the recorded waveform during the induction stimulus. And then she used this waveform in the voltage clam experiment to directly patch onto a ganglion cell and, and, and activate the ganglion cell, according to the, to the activation activation pattern of the cell during the induction stimulus. This voltage clamped the cell to mimic the activity of the ganglion cell during induction stimulus. And then, for the rest of the time window, during the testing spot period, she hold the cell at minus 60 millivolts to record the EPSCs. So, so she can still measure the level of sensitization of the EPSC before and after this direct depolarization of the ganglion cell. So in this case, synaptic currents are blocked where there's no visual stimulation. So the ganglion cell is only activated by direct electrical stimulation. But in this case, she didn't see any sensitization of the EPSCs or the ganglion cell response, indicating that synaptic inputs is required for this phenomenon. So another question is about the sustained components that appears in the dorsal DS ganglion cells after induction. So she next asked whether the sustained component originated from on or off pathways of the bipolar cells. So what she did is she blocked the on pathway with AP4. And then she do the induction protocol again. So first of all, in the presence of AP4, the on response is blocked, as expected. But she still sees sensitized response in the off response is still sensitized, and she still see the appearance of a sustained component, indicating that the sensitization of the off response as well as the sustained component originated from the off bipolar cell pathway. And she also recorded the PSPs in AP4, again, consistent with the spiking activity. She see that although the on response is abolished, she still see sustained component and after the, and also sustained on response in AP4. And similarly, the EPSC data is consistent with the off pathway origin of this sustained component and off response. And then she look at what are the signaling mechanisms that mediate this sensitization. So she tried various pharmacological agents to block different type of signaling. So she we didn't find the effect with gabazine, the gab allergic signaling is not involved. The muscandronic and nicotinic receptor signaling doesn't seem to be required for the sensitization. And the only drug that had an impact in the sensitization is the strengthening. And in the presence of strengthening, both the on and off spiking response is no longer sensitized. And we also see a significant reduction in the sustained component. And similarly, a similar effect is seen for the EPSCs. So strengthening blocks the sensitization of the off and the sustained EPSCs as well. And to summarize these results, I presented so far, we think that glycinergic signaling is required for the sensitization of the dorsal DS ganglion cells. We think before the induction stimulus, there is a glycinergic amcarine cell that modulates the glutamatergic inputs from the off bipolar cells to the off DS ganglion cells. After the induction stimulus, the hypothesis is that this glycinergic inhibition adapts after the induction stimulus, and this leads to the disinhibited release of glutamate from the off bipolar cells, so that the off DS ganglion cells receive more glutamate from the off bipolar cells. And there's one thing that we also noted is that in the presence of strengthening so if we block glycinergic signaling with the strengthening didn't prevent the sanitization of the on EPSCs the glutamatergic response, but it does abolish the spiking response. So this suggests that the sanitized on EPSC is not sufficient to cause this the the sanitized spiking response for the on pathway. So, this is just the recapitulation so the strengthening doesn't affect on EPSC, but abolish the sanitization of the on spiking. And we also noted that the strictly impairs the sustained component, and we know that the sustained component originated is originated from the off pathway. So, our hypothesis is that the sustained component from the off pathway plays a role in the sense that in the stabilization of the on response. So the hypothesis is that after induction stimulus, the off bipolar cell release more glutamate both transiently to the off response, but also have a tonic increase to cause the sustained depolarization. And of course the off bipolar cells have the sustained depolarization depolarization in the off dendritic layer, but we hypothesized that this sustained depolarization from the off dendritic layer can spread to the on dendritic layer to boost the excitability of the on dendrites, so that the next incoming on EPSC is more likely to generate spiking response. So, so there's basically the electronic spread of depolarization from the off dendritic layer to the on dendritic layer. And, and, and so and one way we think about the by stratified on off DS dendrites is that there are two dendritic layers, and so the spread can occur, you know, from one layer to the next layer through the soma. But another interest and this, but another feature of the off DS dendrites morphology came to our attention, because we noticed, there are many crossover dendrites between the on off dendritic layers. So here is an example of a reconstruction of a DS of DS ganglion cells recorded. And you can see that the off and on dendritic layers are shown. But also, many, there are many dendrites that across between the layers. And this phenomenon has been observed very early on in the rabbit and in the mouse. And, but here we start to wonder whether those crossover dendrites actually plays a role in facilitating the electronic spread of depolarization from off to the on layers. So, a former undergrad in the lab start to analyze the this morphological feature of dendritic crossovers. So in this example, this is the same cell, and this is the off dendritic layer this is the on dendritic layer, and the red colors dendrites off layer dendrites but originates from on layer. So these are coming from a diving dendrites from the on layer and then further elaborate in the off. And then in the on layer those yellow color dendrites originates from the off layer. And so again, this is the side view. And then here is the quantification. So there are different configurations. There are layer dendrites in the off layer that come from on layer and there are on dendrites that come from off layer. And then there are some from on to off and then back to on and the other way around, but the most common crossover configuration is off dendrites originated from the on layer. And this is quite and this crossover is very consistent across all cells in the DR before in the posterior tuned cells we reconstructed and about 30% of total dendrites originates from the opposite layer. And also we also did a show analysis to analyze where are the diving points distributed. Concentrically, and we found that most of the crossover points occurs in the, in the distal half of the dendritic tree. And, and, and this seems to facilitate the spread, the signal propagation across the dendric layers and bypassing the soma. And then our collaborator Rob used a biophysically realistic model of the cell. And so she, he used the same cell that that I show in the previous slide. And, and, and simulated the electronic spread when we inject current or a synaptic inputs occurred in off layer and how effective is spread into the on layer with a crossover dendrite. And so the on layer is shown in the in the off layer is in top on layer in the bottom. And then the current injection is in here in the in in this mark in the off layer. And because of the crossover dendrite the on layer that the vertically aligned to the injection site in the off have a prominent increase in in memory potential depolarization to And Rob also simulated with with known active dendric mechanisms in the model and he found that this crossover events is local. And this, so this is because the depolarization in the off layer is more effective in recruiting the on layer active mechanisms when the electronic distance between the off layers are shortest. So it's so this effect depends on distance. So the model predicts that if a sense that sensitization is locally induced in one side of the dendrite in the off layer, then the on response is more is more effectively potentiated in on layer that are vertically aligned. So, meaning that the on the same side on the same side of the of the dendrites. But if the induction or if the sentence if the sensitization is induced in the opposite side of the dendrite between the on off layers, then the off and so this this is less effective in boosting the on response in on layer. So again, this simulation is is mimicking the induction protocol we use. So in this case, local test spot is used, and then a local induction stimulus is used to induce sentence sensitization. In one side of the DS ganglion cell dendrites, followed by on on stimulus, either in the same side side or in the opposite side of the dendritic tree. And so the model predicts that when the testing spot for the on off and on the same side, we should see a more pronounced sensitization of the on response due to the crossover signal from the off dendritic layer. So we tested this simulation results with experiments. So what Lindsay did is she showed a local testing spot followed by induction stimulus a local drifting greetings but especially confined to one side of the DS ganglion cell dendrites. And then she after induction stimulus she test the spot response using a test spot either in the same side of the induction stimulus or in the opposite side of the induction stimulus. Then she found that she see more pronounced sensitization of the on response. If the testing spot is on the same side of the induction stimulus compared to the spot that was delivered to the opposite of the induction stimulus. So this is consistent with the modeling showing that this crossover. So the, the, the spread of the sustained depolarization from the off dendrite is, is distance dependent. So it's more effective in recruiting active dendritic mechanisms and to bring the on dendrites above the spiking threshold at the shorter electronic distance. So, to summarize, we found that in the, in the dorsal retina, we see that after a short period of induction stimulus, the off response of the ganglion cell is transiently enhanced. And in the dorsal retina, we also see the appearance of a sustained depolarization originating from the off layer. And this sustained depolarization in the off dendrites of the ganglion cell spread into the on layer of the dendrites. And then this and through the both the soma and the crossover dendrites, and this leads to the increased excitability of the on dendritic layer, and which analyzed the enhanced on response. And in the ventral retina, we didn't see sustained depolarization, we also didn't see send us sensitization of the on response. We weren't suggesting that the sensitized on response in the dorsal cells comes from the sustained depolarization from the off dendritic layer. And, and since this mechanism originates from the off bipolar cell pathway, we wondered whether this is this can this this mechanism also impact other retinal ganglion cell cell types. We recorded targeted several other cell types, mostly the alpha cells with big soma size. So she recorded a subset of transient on alphas sustained on alphas transient off and sustained off, and she only found the similar pattern of sensitization in the sustained off alpha cells. So again, in the dorsal, in the in the dorsal retina, she found that at least a subset of sustained off alpha cells also shows sanitization after the same induction protocol. But in the ventral sustained alpha cells she didn't see sensitization and she doesn't see the sustained firing. And also she looked into development. So when is this sensitization first appear in development. So she found that around eye opening or right before eye opening about P 12 and P 13. She didn't see sensitization in the dorsal cells. So, if anything, she she see a moderate adaptation. So it seems that this sensitive sensitization in in is developed after eye opening. And then she checked whether she can prevent the development of this phenomenon with dark rearing. So, when she dark reared animals from pH all the way to P 13. She still see sanitize response from those ganglion cells. So indicating that the sensitization of the ganglion cell is developed after eye opening but is independent of. dark rearing so dark rearing doesn't affect the development. So here are just a quantification so early in right around eye opening. We didn't see any sensitization if anything there might be a tendency to adapt for the on response. And, but we see sensitize response in the adult even in the conditions of dark rearing. So to summarize this part, we think so we're, we particularly look at a phenomenon where the off DS ganglion cells show adaptive changes in game to prior visual stimulation. So this, this commutation is implemented by glycinogenic signaling in off bipolar cell pathway, but we only see that in a dorsal retina. And then these glycinogenic mechanism implement short term disinhibition of bipolar cell excitation, and that analyze this adaptive change. So our phenomenon add to the increasing findings of sensitize sensitization in in the retina and across species. So previously, there are multiple studies looking at contrast, sorry, not contrast, both contrast adaptation and sensitization. So Steve bucket's group have shown that if you show high contrast a period of high contrast stimuli, and followed by low contrast, a subset of ganglion cells in a salamander mouse and rabbit ganglion, ganglion cells show adapting response after the high contrast. And also, Leon like not those group showed in that in the zebrafish. There are subpopulations of retina neurons that show sensitizing response after high contrast. And recently, Manukin's group have shown that in the on measured ganglion cells when presented with a low temporal frequency greetings also show sensitize response. So, you know, these to get so in in our protocol we didn't use. So the induction stimulus is with the same contrast, but we had, I think the temporal kinetics is different between the testing spot and the induction stimulus. But regardless of the specific induction protocols for sensitization. I think our studies points to a common theme of sensitization mechanism, which is the adaptation of inhibitory inputs to the bipolar cells. So it's a dis inhibition of the excitation that underlies those sensitization phenomena. So just to summarize. So, with so these recent examples using a bit more complex visual stimuli, really highlights the context contextual modulation of visual circuitry even at the very early stage in the retina. So, depending on the visual context, or depending on the visual stimulus, the commutation of the, of the retina neurons can be flexible it can, there's flexibility in what type of information, the ganglion cell can encode. And there's also flexible algorithms. So, that, for example, the, the same circuit motif can function very with different algorithms, algorithms, depending on the visual stimulus. And also different visual stimuli will recruit different subset of neuronal substrates to implement those context dependent processing. And that I like to thank my lab. So the three projects are done by Chris, Jen and Lindsay in the lab, and also a former student Hector has done really interesting very nice work at the dendritic level but I didn't have time to talk about today. And the rest of the lab, and I like to also thank my wonderful collaborators, Rob has been collaborating with us on multiple projects on the modeling. And Stephanie and Albert Chen has been helping us with theoretical analysis and and look at the coding of the ganglion cell response and David has been helping us to mining the connectomic data to support, to, to, to provide insight into the implementation of those of those computations. And I also like to thank my funding source. Thanks. Okay. Thanks a lot. Really, really interesting talk. Okay, thanks. A bunch of data, really interested findings. And yes, so we can proceed with the questions that are coming from, from the chat. And Anna, and I bless it is, is saying and asking if these are very interesting results. I'm curious about the intensities and colors of the of the visual stimuli you are using. Are you using a UV wavelength stimulus in the ventral retina. That's the first question. Yeah, that's a great question. So, initially, when we look at the dorsal ventral difference, we see that the ventral cells doesn't sanitize for for the sustained component and for the off response. And of course, the, the dorsal and ventral retina, one prominent difference is the is the their absence right so the ventral cells have a very high density of s options, but the dorsal cells have much lower as option content. And so our old led we use organic old led led that so our visual stimulus cannot activate s options. So that so to and so we then did more experiment to see whether the lack of sensitization in the ventral cells is due to our stimulus right if we cannot activate as option and actually maybe we couldn't. It's not the red stimulus to activate to sanitize the dorsal cells. So then we use the UV led to perform the same induction protocol in the ventral retina. The UV led is more effective in activating s options in a venture retina, but we still couldn't induce sensitization using a UV led. So, so I think, so there's definitely, you know, the dorsal and ventral retina already taking inputs because of the photoreceptor difference. But it seems that even when we sufficiently activate s options, we still cannot induce the same sustained depolarization and the on response in the ventral retina so our hypothesis is that something in the IPL in the off bipolar cell circuitry in the inner prex form layer is responsible for the dorsal ventral difference so they might be differentially modulated by glass energetic signaling for example. So, I have another question from Tomomi Ichinos, which says, I missed the reason why the sensitization happens only in the dorsal retina. Is the glass energetic cells differentially expressed between the two sides? Yeah, yes, great question. So whether, yeah, because Ichinos lab has has a very elegant study on the on the cholinergic signaling at the bipolar cells. We, we, we don't know for sure, we only tried DH beta E, which is a nicotinic blocker that block alpha, alpha two, three, I think doesn't block alpha seven very well. Nicotinic, nicotinic receptors. So DH beta E cannot prevent sensitization. So it's not those nicotinic receptors. We also use atropine, which is the muscarinic receptors, and they also failed to prevent sensitization so it's not muscarinic, but we don't know whether it's alpha seven or it's other, yeah, cholinergic signaling could be involved. Okay, so yes, moving forward. Yes, I, we, at the moment, we don't have more questions from the chat. And remember, if you're interested in discussing more in details, I already posted the zoom link so we can go to a private room. I was, yeah, I, I also had the same question about the topography of the distribution of glycinergic amarkating cells. But yes, I was wondering if, if you have done any morphological study of the distribution of these so what's the question was in the same way as Ichinosis question so, but you already answered it. And so this is just by curiosity, you, you apply this, this is stimuli which generate the sensitization. Have you, have you seen by chance, any stimuli which generate the opposite effect, the depression in terms of the sensitization over your studies, or if you detected the opposite effect in any population of direction selectivity RGC. Not really. Oh, yes, that's a great question. So we, whether question is whether we can induce adaptation. Yes. With any other stimuli. Yeah, play with the size or, you know, duration of the preceding stimuli. So we haven't, we haven't using, so, you know, if we show this very brief period of, like, gradings or moving motion stimulus, we always see sensitization. But, but, but I think the, the contextual modulation of the game of those of the S ganglion cells is is definitely there's a more rich phenomenon behind it. So for example, previously, Michael reference group have shown that if you show a slightly quite a different type of induction stimulus, she can, she can flip the tuning curve to the opposite direction. So, you know, the tuning can be flipped to the now direction. And that involves a different form of adaptation in the inner circuitry in the retina circuitry. So there are definitely, I think they're definitely different contextual effects, depending on the stimulus that we show. But in terms of our induction protocol, it's the sensation is robust. And it doesn't happen in all other in other ganglion in many other ganglion cell types for the four type of alpha cells we tested. The other three doesn't show any change in this protocol, but the sustained alpha shows the sensation. Yeah. Okay, thanks for, for your password. We have more questions from Leon. So he's asking on the mechanism of sustained response after induction. Is this simply due to reduce inhibition of off bipolar cell synapse. This will imply that baseline activity that the before the induction is set by by high levels of inhibition. Yeah, so, so the question is before induction because we don't see sustained spiking. We also don't see sustained EPA sustained glutamatergic inputs. So when we record the baseline activity of the ganglion cells is very quiet. So the spontaneous found rates in our prep is very low. We barely see spontaneous spiking before we show so the visual stimulus. So I think that at the baseline level maybe the excitation is already the tonic excitation is very is low in at the level that low enough to to minimize a spontaneous spiking. And then after induction, the bipolar cell release more glutamate so there's more glutamatergic EPSCs, but actually, I didn't show it in the slides, but we also show that we also see an increased tonic IPSEs. So the inhibitory inputs to the ganglion cells through immigrant cells is also enhanced. But overall, that increase inhibition is not sufficient to counteract the increased depolarization from excitation. So we see this sustained spiking depolarization and spiking after induction. And we think that because of is the because it's the sensitization of the bipolar cell excitation, whatever the immigrant cell target of those bipolar cells are also receiving more excitation. That's why those cells will also release more IP a Gabba onto the ganglion cells. So there's a concomitant enhancement of EPSC and IPSE after induction. Okay. Thank you so much. So, yeah, so, and so I would like to say, again, thanks for accepting our invitation to the SAS exhibition series. And now, if you're interested, if the audience is interested, they can join the the private zoom room in which we will be discussing more in detail, or the results you have shown now. So thanks again. And we will keep the link online for a few minutes. So we can keep talking about your search and future directions if you want. Okay, thank you so much, Jose. Okay, no problem. Thanks a lot, everyone. All right. So people is start to join started to join. I'm not blessed. Just joined the conversation. So, yeah, I, well, when we are offline from the YouTube. Yeah, yeah, I will, I will end this now. So the link is already posted. So I will start, I will end the stream right now. Hi, how are you? Hi, are you