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The Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM), once regarded as the jewel in the crown of the World Trade Organization (WTO), has been facing a variety of serious criticisms for its inherent limitations and problems while its appellate review function has been paralyzed. Discussions on the reform of the WTO DSM have been under way for several years now. Many key items are on the reform agenda, one of which is to introduce Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) proceedings to the WTO DSM. Among several options of ADR, ‘mediation’ can offer an important set of tools for the WTO and its Members to resolve disputes in a more efficient and prompt manner. If properly structured, mediation can complement the existing binding proceedings of panels and the Appellate Body. At the same time, introduction of mediation to the WTO DSM may also cause additional legal and practical problems. It may cause further delays, confidentiality traps, due process myriads, and enforcement loopholes. It is vital to introduce mediation provisions to address those critical problems. Systematized and structuralized mediation in the WTO DSM will be able to offer a viable alternative path to resolve certain complex and sensitive disputes.

The mitochondria are the primary intracellular organelles that generate cellular energy, and pyruvate metabolism is a key event in the mitochondria. Furthermore, when the authors suppressed PDK activity with DCA, the treatment alleviated the pathological phenotypes of diabetic AKI mouse models, such as cell death, oxidative stress, and inflammation. Reducing oxidative stress and inflammation by pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 inhibition is important in prevention of renal ischemia-reperfusion injury in diabetic mice.

International Court of Justice-war reparation-compensation-macroeconomic consequence-direct and indirect damage-damage to property, natural resources, and environment.

There is mounting concern that social media sites contribute to political polarization by creating “echo chambers” that insulate people from opposing views about current events. We surveyed a large sample of Democrats and Republicans who visit Twitter at least three times each week about a range of social policy issues. One week later, we randomly assigned respondents to a treatment condition in which they were offered financial incentives to follow a Twitter bot for 1 month that exposed them to messages from those with opposing political ideologies (e.g., elected officials, opinion leaders, media organizations, and nonprofit groups). Respondents were resurveyed at the end of the month to measure the effect of this treatment, and at regular intervals throughout the study period to monitor treatment compliance. We find that Republicans who followed a liberal Twitter bot became substantially more conservative posttreatment. Democrats exhibited slight increases in liberal attitudes after following a conservative Twitter bot, although these effects are not statistically significant. Notwithstanding important limitations of our study, these findings have significant implications for the interdisciplinary literature on political polarization and the emerging field of computational social science.

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) require both high efficiency and good long-term stability if they are to be commercialized. It is crucial to finely optimize the energy level matching between the perovskites and hole-transporting materials to achieve better performance. Here, we synthesize a fluorene-terminated hole-transporting material with a fine-tuned energy level and a high glass transition temperature to ensure highly efficient and thermally stable PSCs. We use this material to fabricate photovoltaic devices with 23.2% efficiency (under reverse scanning) with a steady-state efficiency of 22.85% for small-area (~0.094 cm 2 ) cells and 21.7% efficiency (under reverse scanning) for large-area (~1 cm 2 ) cells. We also achieve certified efficiencies of 22.6% (small-area cells, ~0.094 cm 2 ) and 20.9% (large-area, ~1 cm 2 ). The resultant device shows better thermal stability than the device with spiro-OMeTAD, maintaining almost 95% of its initial performance for more than 500 h after thermal annealing at 60 °C. Interfacial losses between device layers play a key role in determining characteristics of solar cells. Jeon et al. address this in perovskite solar cells by synthesizing a hole-transporting layer that is better matched to the surrounding layers, and show high-efficiency and high-stability devices.

Increased endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is one of the central mechanisms that lead to dysregulated metabolic homeostasis in obesity. It is thus crucial to understand the underpinnings of the mechanisms that lead to the development of ER stress. A high level of ER Ca²⁺ is imperative for maintenance of normal ER function and this high Ca²⁺ concentration of ER is maintained by sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum Ca²⁺-ATPase (SERCA). Here, we show that SERCA2b protein and mRNA levels are dramatically reduced in the liver of obese mice and restoration of SERCA2b in the liver of obese and diabetic mice alleviates ER stress, increases glucose tolerance, and significantly reduces the blood glucose levels. Furthermore, overexpression of SERCA2b in the liver of obese mice significantly reduces the lipogenic gene expression and the triglyceride content in the liver. Our results document the importance of SERCA2b in dysregulated glucose and lipid homeostasis in the liver of obese mice and suggest development of drugs to increase SERCA2b activity for treatment of type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

With the growing acceptance of diverse sexual orientations, displaying rainbow flags has become a widespread urban practice, symbolizing solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. What motivates individuals to publicly express support for the rights of sexual minorities beyond private approval? The authors explore whether social exposure among flat neighbors contributes to the public display of rainbow flags on private windows and balconies by conducting an extensive field observation of 135,202 residents in the city of Bern, Switzerland. The authors applied models to compare the spatial clustering of flagged households with a simulated distribution representing independent actors at façades, a granular approach to address residential self-selection. The analysis reveals that flagged households are significantly closer to one another on façades than expected under random conditions, indicating social influence among close flat neighbors. The authors also observed an excess of buildings either completely devoid of flags or displaying a large number of them, suggesting that committed minorities can induce a self-reinforcing cycle whereby each nearby flag lowers perceived risks for nonadopters, increasing the likelihood of further displays. These results suggest that the public expression of LGBTQ+ support not only stems from individual beliefs but also can emerge through social exposure to neighboring supporters.

To accommodate the antenna demand for rural communication and safety monitoring a shared aperture muti-port antenna sensor is presented for three different operating frequencies covering both Sub- 6 GHz and 5G millimeter-wave bands. The antenna sensor is designed on a single substrate, while different ports are connected to different radiating elements to achieve multiple frequency responses. The simulated and measured findings show that the presented antenna can cover TV-white-space (TVWS) frequency band, 5.8 GHz ISM band, and the 5G millimeter-wave frequency band. At the TVWS band, the antenna yields an omnidirectional radiation pattern with a peak gain of 3.14 dBi. While the antenna provides a unidirectional radiation pattern at the 5.8 GHz ISM and 5G millimeter-wave band with a peak gain of 6.76 dBi and 7.68 dBi, respectively. Moreover, all the antenna ports offer a radiation efficiency of more than 92%. Additionally, the 2-port MIMO configuration at the 5G millimeter-wave band shows excellent MIMO diversity performances by utilizing the proposed novel decoupling structure, which consists of metallic stub and cavity vias. Overall performance of the proposed antenna, especially the three operating frequency band including the TVWS band, makes it a viable solution for the sensing and communication in rural areas.

Climate change poses a grave threat to the international community, thus prompting global action on all fronts. Various ‘green energy programs’ are being adopted by many governments. To the extent that governmental support is indispensable for the initiation and maintenance of these green energy programs, the SCM Agreement is directly implicated in this regard. Unfortunately, the agreement does not include any exceptions to these programs, even if the exceptions are undertaken due to the growing concerns of the global community. Under such circumstances, a practical solution should be found from within the existing framework, and be derived from an interpretation of the present SCM Agreement based on current jurisprudence. The collective jurisprudence of the WTO arguably stands for the proposition that certain renewable energy programs constitute ‘general infrastructure’ projects of a state, and thus are excluded from the financial contributions by the government under Article 1.1(a)(1)(iii) of the SCM Agreement.

Insulin dials down endogenous hepatic glucose production after a meal by deactivating the transcription factor FoxO1. In a mouse model of insulin resistance, Umut Ozcan and his colleagues now show that hepatic overexpression of Xbp-1s, a factor involved in the cell stress response, leads to the protein degradation of FoxO1, thus reducing serum glucose levels. These results suggest a way to bypass one aspect of insulin resistance. To date, the only known role of the spliced form of X-box–binding protein-1 (XBP-1s) in metabolic processes has been its ability to act as a transcription factor that regulates the expression of genes that increase the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) folding capacity, thereby improving insulin sensitivity. Here we show that XBP-1s interacts with the Forkhead box O1 (FoxO1) transcription factor and directs it toward proteasome-mediated degradation. Given this new insight, we tested modest hepatic overexpression of XBP-1s in vivo in mouse models of insulin deficiency or insulin resistance and found it improved serum glucose concentrations, even without improving insulin signaling or ER folding capacity. The notion that XBP-1s can act independently of its role in the ER stress response is further supported by our finding that in the severely insulin resistant ob/ob mouse strain a DNA-binding–defective mutant of XBP-1s, which does not have the ability to increase ER folding capacity, is still capable of reducing serum glucose concentrations and increasing glucose tolerance. Our results thus provide the first evidence to our knowledge that XBP-1s, through its interaction with FoxO1, can bypass hepatic insulin resistance independent of its effects on ER folding capacity, suggesting a new therapeutic approach for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.