Theorizing Intergenerational Justice in International Law: The Case of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

On July 21, 2021, a resolution was introduced in the Chicago City Council calling on the US government to ratify the new United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and describing the struggle to abolish nuclear weapons as a matter of racial justice. Unlike prior nuclear disarmament treaties, the TPNW bans all nuclear weapons outright and reframes nuclear disarmament as a matter of decolonial struggle. The coming into force of the TPNW treaty raises questions about the relationship between this new treaty regime and the traditional framework of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). In this Article, we argue for understanding the novelty of the TPNW through the prism of intergenerational conflict and justice. The Nuclear Ban Treaty comes into effect at a moment when the generation that personally experienced nuclear warfare is quickly passing, and it speaks to a new generation of activists and diplomats who place less hope in back-room negotiations among great powers. More broadly, we argue for centering intergenerational justice in international law. Although the question of what each generation owes the next is not a standard frame of reference in international law, as we suggest in Part II, upon closer analysis, questions of intergenerational justice pervade may international legal problems, from climate change to human rights to the law of war. To address the challenge of intergenerational justice demands that international lawyers develop more complex and subtle approaches to intergenerational conflict and collaboration. In Part III, we borrow insights from a global anti-nuclear art mural project with roots in Chicago\u27s community-based struggles for racial justice in which political action is framed as a problem of intergenerational collaboration. Ultimately, we argue in Part IV that the contested relationship between the NPT and the TPNW frameworks can be an opportunity for intergenerational collaboration of its own. Progress on the elimination of nuclear weapons now requires working across generational divides in international law and developing methodologies and commitments to build solidarity across generations of experts and activists

Parameter dependence of ballistic velocity in deterministic diffusion in the form of devil's staircase

By using simple extended mapping models showing chaotic diffusion, nonperturbative non-Gaussian characteristics of diffusive motion are examined in the framework of the large deviation statistical theory. Furthermore by rigorously solving the large deviation statistical quantities, it is found that the same type of anomalous, complex control parameter dependence as that for the diffusion coefficient reported by Klages and Dorfman is also observed in the large deviation statistical quantities such as the weighted average, the generalized diffusion coefficient and the generalized power spectrum densities

Development of Assembly Robot System for Flexible Belt-Shaped Subject

We develop an assembly robot system for assembling the flexible belt-shaped subject. An image processing method is developed to recognize the belt-shaped subject. This method is able to determine the grasping point and grasping angle for piking up a subject by a multiple hands unit. CAD information is used to determine the grasping point. The multiple hands unit is developed, which is able to grasp all grasping points of a subject at a time. In addition, the image processing method is used to judge whether a subject is fastened accurately at right position or not during the assembly

Opinions: The Anthropology of Finance

One of the more salutory effects of the financial crisis in 2007-8 has been the realization, even by some economists, that numbers do not explain everything and that social forms and relations also play a major part in financial trading. Here anthropologists (and some sociologists) have come to the fore. The JBA therefore asked a number of scholars to write an opinion piece about different aspects of the anthropology of finance that interested them. Here is what some of them kindly contributed

Regulation of Npt2b gene promoter activity by RAR/RXR-C/EBP

Inorganic phosphate (Pi) homeostasis is regulated by intestinal absorption via type II sodium-dependent co-transporter (Npt2b) and by renal reabsorption via Npt2a and Npt2c. Although we previously reported that vitamin A-deficient (VAD) rats had increased urine Pi excretion through the decreased renal expression of Npt2a and Npt2c, the effect of vitamin A on the intestinal Npt2b expression remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the effects of treatment with all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), a metabolite of vitamin A, on the Pi absorption and the Npt2b expression in the intestine of VAD rats, as well as and the underlying molecular mechanisms. In VAD rats, the intestinal Pi uptake activity and the expression of Npt2b were increased, but were reduced by the administration of ATRA. The transcriptional activity of reporter plasmid containing the promoter region of the rat Npt2b gene was reduced by ATRA in NIH3T3 cells overexpressing retinoic acid receptor (RAR) and retinoid X receptor (RXR). On the other hand, CCAAT/enhancer-binding proteins (C/EBP) induced transcriptional activity of the Npt2b gene. Knockdown of the C/EBP gene and a mutation analysis of the C/EBP responsible element in the Npt2b gene promoter indicated that C/EBP plays a pivotal role in the regulation of Npt2b gene transcriptional activity by ATRA. EMSA revealed that the RAR/RXR complex inhibits binding of C/EBP to Npt2 b gene promoter. Together, these results suggest that ATRA may reduce the intestinal Pi uptake by preventing C/EBP activation of the intestinal Npt2b gene

stearoyl-CoA desaturaseの低下は慢性腎臓病における過剰な小胞体ストレスを介して筋萎縮に寄与する

Skeletal muscle atrophy is associated with mortality and poor prognosis in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, underlying mechanism by which CKD causes muscle atrophy has not been completely understood. The quality of lipids (lipoquality), which is defined as the functional features of diverse lipid species, has recently been recognized as the pathology of various diseases. In this study, we investigated the roles of the stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD), which catalyzes the conversion of saturated fatty acids into monounsaturated fatty acids, in skeletal muscle on muscle atrophy in CKD model animals. In comparison to control rats, CKD rats decreased the SCD activity and its gene expression in atrophic gastrocnemius muscle. Next, oleic acid blocked the reduction of the thickness of C2C12 myotubes and the increase of the endoplasmic reticulum stress induced by SCD inhibitor. Furthermore, endoplasmic reticulum stress inhibitor ameliorated CKD-induced muscle atrophy (the weakness of grip strength and the decrease of muscle fiber size of gastrocnemius muscle) in mice and the reduction of the thickness of C2C12 myotubes by SCD inhibitor. These results suggest that the repression of SCD activity causes muscle atrophy through excessive endoplasmic reticulum stress in CKD