Capability Matrix : A Framework for Analyzing Capabilities in Value Chains

This paper develops a Capability Matrix for analyzing capabilities of developing country firms that participate in global and national value chains. This is a generic framework to capture firm-level knowledge accumulation in the context of global and local industrial constellations, by integrating key elements of the global value chain (GVC) and technological capabilities (TC) approaches. The framework can visually portray characteristics of firms’ capabilities, and highlight a relatively overlooked factor in the GVC approach: local firms’ endogenous learning efforts in varieties of relationship with lead firms.Developing Countries, Industrial Management, Business Enterprises, Capability Matrix, Capabilities, Value Chains, Lead Firms, Local Firms

59Co-NMR Knight Shift of the Superconducting NaxCoO2.yH2O

Layered Co oxide NaxCoO2.yH2O with the superconducting transition temperature Tc =4.5 K has been studied by 59Co-NMR. The Knight shift K estimated from the observed spectra for powder sample exhibits almost temperature(T)-independent behavior above Tc and decreases with decreasing T below Tc. This result and the existence of the coherence peak in the spin-lattice-relaxation-rate versus T curve reported by the present authors indicate, naively speaking, that the singlet order parameter with s-wave symmetry is realized in NaxCoO2.yH2O. Differences of the observed behaviors between the spectra of the non-aligned sample and the one aligned in epoxy adhesive by applying the external magnetic field are discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Politics of International Advocacy Against the Death Penalty: Governments as Anti–Death Penalty Crusaders

Two-thirds of the countries worldwide have moved away from the death penalty in law or in practice, with global and regional organisations as well as individual governments working towards universal abolition. This article critically examines the narratives of these abolitionist governments that have abolished the death penalty in their country and have adopted the role of ‘moral crusaders’ (Becker 1963) in pursuit of global abolition. In 2018, the Australian Government, while being surrounded by retentionist states in Asia, joined the anti–death penalty enterprise along with the European Union, the United Kingdom and Norway. Using the concepts of ‘moral crusader’ (Becker 1963) and ‘performativity’ (Butler 1993), this article argues that advocacy must be acted on repeatedly for governments to be anti–death penalty advocates. Otherwise, these government efforts serve political ends in appearance but are simply a self-serving form of advocacy in practice

Death Penalty Politics: The Fragility of Abolition in Asia and the Pacific

This special collection of articles on the death penalty and the politics of abolition in Asia and the Pacific is published to coincide with the centenary of one of the world’s earliest statutory abolitions, in the Australian state of Queensland, in August 1922. Scholars of the death penalty, its practice and its abolition were invited to participate in a symposium in May 2021 hosted in Melbourne by Eleos Justice at Monash University and the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research at Griffith University. They were joined by lawyers and abolition advocates, including some who had worked on death row cases. This collection seeks to bring perspectives from a variety of disciplines and methods—historical, legal, sociological, comparative—to bear on the questions of retention and abolition in a variety of jurisdictions and time periods. If there is one conclusion to these collective studies, it is the fragility of abolition. Abolition may now be widely embraced as a norm of international human rights law, but its establishment as a comprehensive and irrevocable fact remains elusive. The task of a research collection such as this is to understand why that may be as a guide to what might be pursued in the future regarding abolition

12 years without an execution: is Zimbabwe ready for abolition?

This report examines Zimbabwean citizens’ attitudes towards the death penalty by analysing a nationally representative opinion survey carried out in 2017. It examines what it means to be a ‘retentionist’ or an ‘abolitionist’ in a country that has not executed anyone since 2005. It also assesses the public’s response to Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution, which further restricted the application of the death penalty. Survey results indicate that public opinion does not pose a barrier to Zimbabwe’s progress from de facto to de jure abolition

Insights into MYC biology through investigation of synthetic lethal interactions with MYC deregulation

MYC (or c-myc) is a bona fide "cancer driver" oncogene that is deregulated in up to 70% of human tumors. In addition to its well-characterized role as a transcription factor that can directly promote tumorigenic growth and proliferation, MYC has transcription-independent functions in vital cellular processes including DNA replication and protein synthesis, contributing to its complex biology. MYC expression, activity, and stability are highly regulated through multiple mechanisms. MYC deregulation triggers genome instability and oncogene-induced DNA replication stress, which are thought to be critical in promoting cancer via mechanisms that are still unclear. Because regulated MYC activity is essential for normal cell viability and MYC is a difficult protein to target pharmacologically, targeting genes or pathways that are essential to survive MYC deregulation offer an attractive alternative as a means to combat tumor cells with MYC deregulation. To this end, we conducted a genome-wide synthetic lethal shRNA screen in MCF10A breast epithelial cells stably expressing an inducible MYCER transgene. We identified and validated FBXW7 as a high-confidence synthetic lethal (MYC-SL) candidate gene. FBXW7 is a component of an E3 ubiquitin ligase complex that degrades MYC. FBXW7 knockdown in MCF10A cells selectively induced cell death in MYC-deregulated cells compared to control. As expected, cellular MYC levels are stabilized when FBXW7 expression is attenuated. Notably, stabilization of MYC is more pronounced compared to other FBXW7 targets. FBXW7 knockdown with MYC deregulation results in cell cycle defects, as well as CDC45 accumulation on chromatin, suggesting DNA replication stress. Intriguingly, FBXW7 and MYC expression correlate most strongly in the luminal A-subtype of breast cancer associated with low to normal MYC expression. Together, our results suggest that knockdown of FBXW7 increases cellular MYC levels and promotes cell death possibly through accumulation of MYC-dependent genomic stress, and that FBXW7 inhibition may be selectively synthetic lethal with breast cancers that retain MYC-dependence. We also identified UVSSA and ERCC8, two genes involved in transcription-coupled repair (TCR), as MYC-SL candidates from our genome-wide screen. TCR is a DNA damage repair pathway associated with active RNA polymerase II-transcription complexes. We show that both UVSSA and ERCC8 knockdown confer increased lethality selectively in MYC-deregulated cells. This MYC-SL interaction is not exacerbated by exogenous UV irradiation, suggesting that TCR may be required for survival upon MYC deregulation independently of its role in UV damage repair. UVSSA knockdown with MYC deregulation results in cell cycle defects and CHK2 activation, suggesting genomic stress. Intriguingly, we observe that lethality associated with UVSSA down-regulation in cells expressing MYCER is alleviated by inhibiting transcription. This suggests that transcription-dependent aberrant genomic structures generated during MYC deregulation may require TCR for maintaining survival. Taken together, our results suggest that increased levels of transcription-dependent genomic stress may accumulate with MYC deregulation, and that TCR may have functions outside of repairing UV-induced damage in resolving these lesions or structures