La Franja y la Ruta hacia una “comunidad de destino común”: ¿un discurso vacío o una práctica viable para Argentina?

The aim of this article is to analyze the relationship between the concept of a “community of common destiny” or “community of shared destiny for mankind”, and the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative in the case of Argentina. The “community” proposal was first presented by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2011. The launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) two years later is characterized as an economic project, but it also contains political, cultural and social dimensions. This New Silk Road is considered a practical instrument to achieve the objective of building a “community of common destiny”. Therefore, it is important to reflect on the birth of this Chinese concept as the purpose of the Belt and Road Initiative and as one of the central axes of Chinese foreign policy, from a constructivist perspective of ideas and identities, and traditional Chinese thoughts on foreign policy. These approaches allow to investigate the feasibility of building such a community between China and Argentina through the BRI, focusing on exposing possible challenges along this path.En el presente trabajo se propone analizar las relaciones entre el concepto de una “comunidad de destino común” o “comunidad de destino compartido para la humanidad”, y la implementación de la iniciativa de la Franja y la Ruta en el caso de Argentina. Esta propuesta de comunidad fue presentada por el presidente chino Xi Jinping por primera vez en 2011. El lanzamiento de la iniciativa de la Franja y la Ruta (IFR) dos años después no solo se caracteriza como un proyecto económico, sino también contiene dimensiones políticas, culturales y sociales. Se considera esta Nueva Ruta de la Seda un instrumento práctico para alcanzar el objetivo de construir una “comunidad de destino común”. Por ende, resulta importante reflexionar sobre el nacimiento de este concepto chino como finalidad de la iniciativa de la Franja y la Ruta y como uno de los ejes centrales de la política exterior china, desde una perspectiva constructivista de ideas e identidades y los pensamientos tradicionales chinos en materia de política exterior. Estos abordajes nos permiten investigar la factibilidad de construir dicha comunidad entre China y Argentina por medio de la IFR, centrándonos en exponer los retos posibles en este camino

Asia y China ante el Covid-19: ¿Mejores respuestas?

Desde inicios de 2020, la pandemia del COVID-19 golpea a la humanidad sin precedentes y paraliza el funcionamiento regular del mundo. Sin embargo, algunos países de Asia Oriental, en especial China, que fue el primer epicentro de esta pandemia, consiguieron combatir el virus y se recuperaron rápidamente de esta crisis sanitaria. Los datos de contagios de China, Japón, Corea del Sur y Vietnam contrastan tremendamente por los obtenidos de los países occidentales. En este trabajo se analizan los posibles factores que explican la gestión eficaz de la pandemia en estos países. Resulta que más allá de las restricciones radicales del control de la pandemia, sus experiencias con las enfermedades contagiosas y sus culturas en las que prevalece el colectivismo constituyen las ventajas innatas de estos países asiáticos, las que no poseen los países occidentales y que facilitan una contención más rápida y efectiva del coronavirusThe COVID-19 pandemic has hit humanity without precedent since the beginning of 2020 and paralyzes the regular functioning of the world. However, some East Asian countries, especially China, which was the first epicenter of this pandemic, managed to combat the virus and quickly recovered from this health crisis. The data on infections from China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam contrast tremendously with those obtained from Western countries. This paper analyzes the possible factors that explain the successful management of the pandemic in these countries. It turns out that beyond the radical restrictions of pandemic control, their experiences with contagious diseases and their cultures in which collectivism prevails constitute the innate advantages of these Asian countries, those that Western countries do not have and that facilitate the faster and more effective containment of coronaviru

Optimizing the Shunting Schedule of Electric Multiple Units Depot Using an Enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

The shunting schedule of electric multiple units depot (SSED) is one of the essential plans for high-speed train maintenance activities. This paper presents a 0-1 programming model to address the problem of determining an optimal SSED through automatic computing. The objective of the model is to minimize the number of shunting movements and the constraints include track occupation conflicts, shunting routes conflicts, time durations of maintenance processes, and shunting running time. An enhanced particle swarm optimization (EPSO) algorithm is proposed to solve the optimization problem. Finally, an empirical study from Shanghai South EMU Depot is carried out to illustrate the model and EPSO algorithm. The optimization results indicate that the proposed method is valid for the SSED problem and that the EPSO algorithm outperforms the traditional PSO algorithm on the aspect of optimality

Correlation between diabetic retinopathy and diabetic nephropathy: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study

Rationale & objectiveA causal relationship concerning diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic nephropathy (DN) has been studied in many epidemiological observational studies. We conducted a two-sample mendelian randomization study from the perspective of genetics to assess these associations.Methods20 independent single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with diabetic retinopathy were selected from the FinnGen consortium. Summary-level data for diabetic nephropathy were obtained from the publicly available genome-wide association studies (GWAS) database, FinnGen and CKDGen consortium. Inverse variance weighted (IVW) was selected as the primary analysis. MR-Egger, weighted median (WM), simple mode and weighted mode were used as complementary methods to examine causality. Additionally, sensitivity analyses including Cochran’s Q test, MR-Egger, MR-Pleiotropy Residual Sum and Outlier (MR-PRESSO), and leave-one-out analyses were conducted to guarantee the accuracy and robustness of our MR analysis.ResultsOur current study demonstrated positive associations of genetically predicted diabetic retinopathy with diabetic nephropathy (OR=1.32; P=3.72E-11), type 1 diabetes with renal complications (OR=1.96; P= 7.11E-11), and type 2 diabetes with renal complications (OR=1.26, P=3.58E-04). Further subtype analysis and multivariate mendelian randomization (MVMR) also reached the same conclusion. A significant casualty with DN was demonstrated both in non-proliferative DR (OR=1.07, P=0.000396) and proliferative DR (OR=1.67, P=3.699068E-14). All the findings were robust across several sensitivity analyses.ConclusionConsistent with previous clinical studies, our findings revealed a positive correlation between DR and DN, providing genetic evidence for the non-invasive nature of DR in predicting DN

The relationship between sleep quality and occupational well-being in employees: The mediating role of occupational self-efficacy

ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the impact of sleep quality on occupational well-being in employees by primarily focusing on the mediating role of occupational self-efficacy.MethodsA total of 487 junior staff completed a set of questionnaires comprised Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scale, Occupational Self-efficacy Scale, and occupational well-being measurements.ResultsThe results revealed that both sleep quality and occupational self-efficacy were significantly correlated with occupational well-being. The structural equation modeling analysis and the bootstrap test indicated that occupational self-efficacy partially mediated the effect of poor sleep quality on occupational well-being.DiscussionThese findings expand upon existing research on the relationship between sleep quality and well-being among occupational workers, shed light on the correlation of poor sleep quality with occupational well-being, and are valuable in promoting the occupational well-being of employees

Suicide risk management in research on internet-based interventions for depression:A synthesis of the current state and recommendations for future research

BACKGROUND: The number of studies examining internet-based interventions (IBIs) for depression is increasing. Although many individuals with depression experience suicidal ideation, there is only insufficient information available on how to manage and support individuals at risk of suicide in IBI trials. Here, we examined the current practice regarding the management of individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts or behaviors in studies of IBIs for depression. METHODS: Information pertaining to the management of suicidality was extracted from 24 studies. Additionally, researchers in the field completed a questionnaire (n = 13) before being interviewed (n = 11) about their procedures and considerations regarding the management of suicidality. RESULTS: In most trials (N = 17; 71%), individuals at risk of suicide were excluded based on varying criteria. N = 7 studies used structured interviews and N = 5 studies used single items of self-report questionnaires for assessing suicidality. The nature and degree of support provided to individuals at risk of suicide varied and only one intervention comprised suicide-specific content. LIMITATIONS: Most experts referred to research on interventions with some level of human support (e.g. written feedback) which might limit the representativeness of the results of the interviews for unguided interventions. CONCLUSIONS: Suicidality is often treated more as an exclusion criterion rather than a treatable condition in research on IBIs for depression. This paper provides an overview of the current practice and gives recommendations for the design of future trials

Video-Bench: A Comprehensive Benchmark and Toolkit for Evaluating Video-based Large Language Models

Video-based large language models (Video-LLMs) have been recently introduced, targeting both fundamental improvements in perception and comprehension, and a diverse range of user inquiries. In pursuit of the ultimate goal of achieving artificial general intelligence, a truly intelligent Video-LLM model should not only see and understand the surroundings, but also possess human-level commonsense, and make well-informed decisions for the users. To guide the development of such a model, the establishment of a robust and comprehensive evaluation system becomes crucial. To this end, this paper proposes \textit{Video-Bench}, a new comprehensive benchmark along with a toolkit specifically designed for evaluating Video-LLMs. The benchmark comprises 10 meticulously crafted tasks, evaluating the capabilities of Video-LLMs across three distinct levels: Video-exclusive Understanding, Prior Knowledge-based Question-Answering, and Comprehension and Decision-making. In addition, we introduce an automatic toolkit tailored to process model outputs for various tasks, facilitating the calculation of metrics and generating convenient final scores. We evaluate 8 representative Video-LLMs using \textit{Video-Bench}. The findings reveal that current Video-LLMs still fall considerably short of achieving human-like comprehension and analysis of real-world videos, offering valuable insights for future research directions. The benchmark and toolkit are available at: \url{https://github.com/PKU-YuanGroup/Video-Bench}.Comment: Benchmark is available at https://github.com/PKU-YuanGroup/Video-Benc

Dynamic polymer systems with self-regulated secretion for the control of surface properties and material healing

Approaches for regulated fluid secretion, which typically rely on fluid encapsulation and release from a shelled compartment, do not usually allow a fine continuous modulation of secretion, and can be difficult to adapt for monitoring or function-integration purposes. Here, we report self-regulated, self-reporting secretion systems consisting of liquid-storage compartments in a supramolecular polymer-gel matrix with a thin liquid layer on top, and demonstrate that dynamic liquid exchange between the compartments, matrix and surface layer allows repeated, responsive self-lubrication of the surface and cooperative healing of the matrix. Depletion of the surface liquid or local material damage induces secretion of the stored liquid via a dynamic feedback between polymer crosslinking, droplet shrinkage and liquid transport that can be read out through changes in the system’s optical transparency. We foresee diverse applications in fluid delivery, wetting and adhesion control, and material self-repair.Chemistry and Chemical BiologyEngineering and Applied Science

CHINESE HERBAL MEDICINE AND PREDNISONE INCREASE PROPORTION OF SPLENIC CD4+CD25-FOXP3+ CELLS AND ALLEVIATE GLOMERULAR LESION IN MRL/LPR MICE

Objective: This study investigated the effects of Chinese herbal medicine and prednisone on CD4+FoxP3+ T cells (Tregs) and Th17 cells in the MRL/lpr mouse model of systemic lupus erythematosus. Methods: MRL/lpr mice were treated with herbal medicine (yin-nourishing and heat-clearing therapy), prednisone, and a combination of both for 7 weeks. The proportions of CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ cells, CD4+CD25-FoxP3+ cells, and CD4+IL-17+ cells in splenic mononuclear cell suspension were determined by flow cytometry. Histological slices of kidneys were stained by H&E, PAS, and Masson’s method. Activity indexes (AI) of glomerular lesions were scored. Results: The result showed that both herbal medicine and prednisone significantly increased the proportion of CD4+CD25-FoxP3+ cells (