Power Transition, Peaceful Change and the UN Security Council: Exploring the Role of Social Structure in International Political Change

The present study is an inquiry into power transition and how it relates to international social structure comprised of state practice, norms, international law and international organisations. It examines how the behaviour of rising powers and international political change in the context of power transition are governed and guided by international social structure through exploring the interface between three themes in International Relations scholarship: power transition, the interwar debate on peaceful change and reform of the UN Security Council. Via integration of elements of English School theory and hitherto neglected, but nevertheless valuable insights from the interwar debate on peaceful change, the study sets out the socio-structural conception of power transition—or, to be more accurate, of international political change in the context of power transition—as an institutionally governed process, presents a distinctive way of theorising power transition that radically departs from the materialistic, mechanistic and state-centric conception of power transition prevalent in the existing literature on power transition, and develops a framework for analysing actual cases of power transition from the socio-structural perspective, taking Security Council reform as a case study. The study emphasises the diversity of institutions governing change in international society, highlighting the role of international law and international organisations designed for the maintenance of international peace and security, such as the League of Nations and the UN, in managing international political change in the context of power transition, and showing the role that the Security Council as an agent of international political change plays in entrenching the institution of peaceful change in contemporary international society via exercise of its powers under Chapter VI and potentially Chapter VII of the UN Charter. From this standpoint, the study questions and reframes the existing debate on Security Council reform, specifying key issues to be addressed in future debate thereon

Defective axonal transport in motor neuron disease

Several recent studies have highlighted the role of axonal transport in the pathogenesis of motor neuron diseases. Mutations in genes that control microtubule regulation and dynamics have been shown to cause motor neuron degeneration in mice and in a form of human motor neuron disease. In addition, mutations in the molecular motors dynein and kinesins and several proteins associated with the membranes of intracellular vesicles that undergo transport cause motor neuron degeneration in humans and mice. Paradoxically, evidence from studies on the legs at odd angles (Loa) mouse and a transgenic mouse model for human motor neuron disease suggest that partial limitation of the function of dynein may in fact lead to improved axonal transport in the transgenic mouse, leading to delayed disease onset and increased life span

Thermopower of the Correlated Narrow Gap Semiconductor FeSi and Comparison to RuSi

Iron based narrow gap semiconductors such as FeSi, FeSb2, or FeGa3 have received a lot of attention because they exhibit a large thermopower, as well as striking similarities to heavy fermion Kondo insulators. Many proposals have been advanced, however, lacking quantitative methodologies applied to this problem, a consensus remained elusive to date. Here, we employ realistic many-body calculations to elucidate the impact of electronic correlation effects on FeSi. Our methodology accounts for all substantial anomalies observed in FeSi: the metallization, the lack of conservation of spectral weight in optical spectroscopy, and the Curie susceptibility. In particular we find a very good agreement for the anomalous thermoelectric power. Validated by this congruence with experiment, we further discuss a new physical picture of the microscopic nature of the insulator-to-metal crossover. Indeed, we find the suppression of the Seebeck coefficient to be driven by correlation induced incoherence. Finally, we compare FeSi to its iso-structural and iso-electronic homologue RuSi, and predict that partially substituted Fe(1-x)Ru(x)Si will exhibit an increased thermopower at intermediate temperatures.Comment: 14 pages. Proceedings of the Hvar 2011 Workshop on 'New materials for thermoelectric applications: theory and experiment

膵癌術後患者におけるcirculating tumour DNA検出の意義

広島大学(Hiroshima University)博士(医学)Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Sciencedoctora