1,721,658 research outputs found
“That May Be Japanese Law … but Not in My Country!” Marriage, Divorce, and Private International Law in Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly
No full textMadama Butterfly is one of the most famous operas by Giacomo Puccini. Set in Japan in 1904, it depicts the tragic love story between B.F. Pinkerton, an officer in the US Navy, and Cio-cio-san (also called Madama Butterfly), a young Japanese girl from Nagasaki. The libretto (written by Giacosa e Illica–one of whom happened to be a lawyer) is quite interesting from a jurist’s perspective as it mentions a number of legal. The pivotal point in the opera is the marriage between the officer and the young Japanese lady. Questions arise about the law applicable to the marriage itself (including the formalities required), that applicable to the matrimonial life and, more importantly, whether Pinkerton was allowed to unilaterally divorce by abandoning the conjugal house, an option in his view permitted by Japanese law (but of course not allowed under the law of the USA). In the opera, the validity of this option is taken for granted, but a legal, technical analysis leads to a different conclusion. This paper investigates in detail the legal aspects of Madama Butterfly, in light of the applicable law in Japan in 1904: in particular, the Civil Code of 1898 (Minpō), the Japanese Code of Private International Law (Hōrei) and the Nationality Law (Kokuseki hō). The story of Pinkerton and Butterfly will be analyzed through the lenses of law to find answers to the following questions: Was their marriage validly performed? Which law regulated their marital life? And most of all: Did the law in 1904 grant the husband the ability to unilaterally divorce through abandonment? In trying to deal with these questions, the paper relies on the original text in Italian (of course providing an English translation for the international readership)
Computing allostery: from the understanding of biomolecular regulation and the discovery of cryptic sites to molecular design
No full text: The concept of allostery has become a central tenet in the study of biological systems. In parallel, the discovery of allosteric drugs is generating new opportunities to selectively modulate difficult targets involved in pathologic mechanisms. Molecular simulations can provide atomistically detailed insight into the processes involved in allosteric regulation and signaling, and at the same time, they have the potential to unveil regulatory hotspots or cryptic sites that are not immediately evident from the analysis of static structures. In this context, computational approaches should be able to connect the study of allosteric regulation at different scales to the possibility of leveraging this knowledge to expand the chemical space of new, active drugs. Here, we will discuss recent advances in the study of allosteric regulation via computational methods and connect the mechanistic knowledge generated to the possibility of designing new small molecules that can tweak the functions of their receptors
Energetic and Dynamic Aspects of the Affinity Maturation Process: Characterizing Improved Variants from the Bevacizumab Antibody with Molecular Simulations
No full textAntibody affinity maturation is one of the fundamental processes of
immune defense against invading pathogens. From the biological point of
view, the clonal selection hypothesis represents the most accepted
mechanism to explain how mutations increasing the affinity for target
antigens are introduced and selected in antibody molecules. However,
understanding at the molecular level how protein modifications, such as
point mutation, can modify and modulate the affinity of an antibody for
its antigen is still a major open issue in molecular biology. In this
paper, we address various aspects of this problem by analyzing and
comparing atomistic simulations of 17 variants of the bevacizumab
antibody, all directed against the common target protein VEGF-A. In
particular, we examine MD-based descriptors of the internal energetics
and dynamics of mutated antibodies and their possible correlations with
experimentally determined affinities for the antigens. Our results show
that affinity improvement is correlated with a variation of the internal
stabilization energy of the antibody molecule when bound to the antigen,
compensated by the variation in the interaction energy between the
antigen and the antibody, paralleled by an overall modulation of
internal coordination within the antibody molecular structure. A
possible model of the mechanism of rigidification and of the main
residues involved is proposed. Overall, our results can help in
understanding the molecular determinants of antigen recognition and have
implications in the rational design of new antibodies with optimized
affinities
Il danno da karoushi. Nuove frontiere della responsabilità civile in Giappone
No full textThis chapter deals with the legal liability arising out of the "death from overwork" (karoushi) in Japan. In particular, it focuses on the "leading case" decided by the Japanese Supreme Court on this issue
Kyoto Seminar & Tokyo Seminar: Japanese Law in the Global Era. Impressions of an Italian Researcher in Kyoto
Full text linkThis is a short review of the Kyoto Seminar and Tokyo Seminar, two intensive courses on Japanese law (and the economy) organized by Ritsumeikan University in cooperation with the Australian Network for Japanese Law (ANJeL)
La Rilevanza dell'Identita Culturale dell'Arbitro: Recenti Casi nell'Arbitrato Commerciale
No full textIl focus di questo saggio intende specificamente collocarsi
sull’identità culturale dell’arbitro. Questo tipo di analisi non è ovviamente inedita, e ci sono già eccellenti studi in materia: si ritiene, tuttavia, che vi sia ancora spazio (soprattutto nel contesto italiano) per ulteriori ricerche in materia.
L’arbitrato commerciale riguarda, ça va sans dire, questioni in materia di affari: tuttavia, a prescindere dall’oggetto del contendere, le parti potrebbero esprimere il desiderio
che il loro arbitro non sia soltanto competente da un punto di vista tecnico, ma che risponda anche ad alcuni requisiti di natura «culturale
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