LABOR MARKET IN CHINA: LABOR RIGHTS, INTERNAL MIGRATION, AND CURRENT TRENDS

Uno de los pilares del crecimiento económico de China es su mercado laboral. Detrás de la segunda economía más grande del mundo, compuesta por una mano de obra de más de 900 millones y basada en una sólida y creciente estabilidad económica, se encuentra una población activa sujeta a condiciones laborales muy diferentes a las de sus competidores occidentales, creando así un ventaja y un alto grado de atractivo para los inversores extranjeros. Este documento explora el mercado laboral y los derechos laborales en China, el papel desempeñado por el gobierno, las organizaciones de trabajadores y los actores internacionales, los flujos migratorios y las perspectivas de un país considerado como la "fábrica del mundo"

Palladium clusters anchored on graphene vacancies, and their effect on the reversible adsorption of hydrogen

Producción CientíficaThe hydrogen storage capacity of nanoporous carbons can be enhanced through metal doping, for instance doping with palladium. However, there are two problems that may limit the positive effect of metal doping on the reversible storage capacity. First, clustering of the metal atoms decreases its effectiveness, which is largest for maximum dispersion. A second problem that is often overlooked is that the desorption of metal–hydrogen complexes may compete favorably with the desorption of hydrogen molecules. Desorption of complexes would spoil the reversible storage of hydrogen in the material. Both problems can be avoided by firmly anchoring the metal atoms and clusters to defects of the carbon substrate, for instance vacancies. With this goal in mind, we have performed density functional calculations to investigate the desorption of hydrogen and of Pd–hydrogen complexes from Pd atoms and clusters supported on pristine graphene and on graphene layers with vacancies. We show that palladium atoms bind much stronger to graphene vacancies, binding energy Eb = 5.13 eV, than to pristine graphene, Eb = 1.09 eV. The Pd atoms tend to nucleate and form clusters around the vacancies and the small Pdn clusters (n = 2–6) also bind strongly, Eb ≈ 5 eV, to the vacancies. However, the Pd–Pd interaction is much smaller than the Pd–vacancy interaction, and therefore, the vacancies favor the dispersion of palladium on the graphene layer. For hydrogen adsobed on Pd atoms and clusters supported on pristine graphene, desorption of Pd–hydrogen complexes competes with desorption of molecular hydrogen. However, for hydrogen adsobed on a Pd atom anchored on a graphene vacancy, the desorption of the PdH2 complex costs 4.2 eV, and therefore, it does not compete with the desorption of molecular hydrogen, which takes place with an energy cost of only 0.2 eV. This shows the beneficial effect that anchoring Pd atoms and clusters to graphene vacancies has on the reversible adsorption/desorption of hydrogenMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación (Proyect MAT2011-22781)Junta de Castilla y León (programa de apoyo a proyectos de investigación - Ref. VA158A11-2

Searching for DFT-based methods that include dispersion interactions to calculate the physisorption of H2 on benzene and graphene

Producción CientíficaSimulations of the hydrogen storage capacities of nanoporous carbons require an accurate treatment of the interaction of the hydrogen molecule with the graphite-like surfaces of the carbon pores, which is dominated by the dispersion forces. These interactions are described accurately by high level quantum chemistry methods, like the Coupled Cluster method with single and double excitations and a non-iterative correction for triple excitations (CCSD(T)), but those methods are computationally very expensive for large systems and for massive simulations. Density functional theory (DFT)-based methods that include dispersion interactions at different levels of complexity are less accurate, but computationally less expensive. In order to find DFT-methods that include dispersion interactions to calculate the physisorption of H2 on benzene and graphene, with a reasonable compromise between accuracy and computational cost, CCSD(T), Møller-Plesset second-order perturbation theory method, and several DFT-methods have been used to calculate the interaction energy curves of H2 on benzene and graphene. DFT calculations are compared with CCSD(T) calculations, in the case of H2 on benzene, and with experimental data, in the case of H2 on graphene. Among the DFT methods studied, the B97D, RVV10, and PBE+DCACP methods yield interaction energy curves of H2-benzene in remarkable agreement with the interaction energy curve obtained with the CCSD(T) method. With regards to graphene, the rev-vdW-DF2, PBE-XDM, PBE-D2, and RVV10 methods yield adsorption energies of the lowest level of H2 on graphene, very close to the experimental dataMinisterio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Project MAT2014-54378-R)Junta de Castilla y León (programa de apoyo a proyectos de investigación - Ref. VA050U14

The somatostatin receptor-adenylate cyclase system in rat pancreatic acinar membranes after temporary pancreaticobiliary duct ligation

The mechanism whereby somatostatin (SS) produces beneficial effects in established pancreatitis induced by pancreaticobiliary duct ligation (PBDL) is still not clear. The aim of the work was to evaluate the possibility of a direct action of SS on pancreatic acinar cells from rats with acute pancreatitis. For this purpose, we studied the SS-receptor-adenylate cyclase system in pancreatic acinar membranes from both, control rats and rats with experimentally induced acute pancreatitis. On the other hand, it has been reported that cholecystokinin (CCK) diminishes the number of SS receptors in pancreatic acinar cells. Proglumide, a CCK receptor antagonist reduces the severity of acute pancreatitis in the rat. Therefore, we have also examined the effect of proglumide on the somatostatinergic system in controls and rats with acute pancreatitis. Fourteen hours after PBDL, the SS receptors, the capacity of the SS analogue SMS 201-995 to inhibit forskolin-stimulated adenylate cyclase activity and PTX-catalyzed [P-32] ADP-ribosylation of the alpha(1) subunits of Gi proteins could not be detected in pancreatic acinar membranes. One month after reopening the closed pancreaticobiliary duct (PBD), the pancreas showed regeneration of acinar cells, and the above-mentioned parameters were significantly lower than in the control group. Two months after reopening the closed PBD, all these parameters had returned to control values. The administration of proglumide (20 mg/kg i.p.), a cholecystokinin receptor antagonist, accelerated pancreatic regeneration and approached all these parameters to control values one month after reopening the closed PBD. The present study suggests that the beneficial effects of SS on established pancreatitis induced by PBDL may not be due to a direct action of the peptide on pancreatic acinar cells at least at 14 hours after PBDL. In addition, these findings suggest that in established pancreatitis the effect of proglumide on the SS receptor-adenylate cyclase system could be due to its action on pancreatic regeneration.The authors thank Ms. Carol F. Warren and Jerry Keller from the Alcala University Institution of Education Sciences and Lilian Puebla from the Department of Biochemistry of\ud Alcala University for their linguistic assistance, as well as Ms. Maria Baez for her excellent assistance with library research and Mr. Luis Monge for assistance in the preparation of the\ud illustrations. The authors are also grateful to Sandoz Ltd. (Basel, Switzerland) for generous donation of SMS 201-995 and its analogue Tyr3-SMS. This study was supported by a Grant from the Direction General de Investigación Científica y Técnica (PM95-0041) and from the University of Alcala (001/96) of Spain

Adenylate cyclase activity during exocrine pancreatic proliferation in the rat

Adenylate cyclase activity in pancreatic acinar cell membranes was determined in rats that had undergone a treatment with pentagastrin (250 μg/kg, intraperitoneal three times daily) for 1 week or that had undergone small bower resection (90%) and were sacrified at 2 weeks, 1 month and 6 months after intervention. Both treatments are potent stimulators of pancreatic acinar cell proliferation. Adenylate cyclase activity was similar under basal conditions and after the diterpene forskolin stimulation in pancreatic acinar membranes from all groups studied. The ability of low concentrations of the stable GTP analogue, 5'-guanylylimidodiphosphate (Gpp[NH]p) to inhibit forskolin- stimulated adenylate cyclase activity was decreased in pancreatic acinar membranes from enterectomized rats at 2 weeks and 1 month after the operation and returned to control values at 6 months after enterectomy. Stimulation of adenylate cyclase by high concentration of Gpp[NH]p or by secretin (10-8 M) was higher in both pancreatic hyperplasia conditions as compared with control animals. These findings suggest that the coupling efficiency of the G(s) protein to adenylate cyclase from pancreatic acinar membranes is enhanced without any alterations in the catalytic activity of the enzyme during pancreatic proliferation. In addition, it is possible that the highly regulated pancreatic acinar adenylate cyclase activity may be necessary to regulate pancreatic acinar cell proliferation

Applications and Trends in Social Robotics

The study has received funding from two projects: Development of social robots to help seniors with cognitive impairment (ROBSEN), financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy; and RoboCity2030-IIICM, funded by the Comunidad de Madrid and co-financed by the European Union Structural Funds

Maggie: A Social Robot as a Gaming Platform

Edutainment robots are robots designed to participate in people's education and in their entertainment. One of the tasks of edutainment robots is to play with their human partners, but most of them offer a limited pool of games. Moreover, it is difficult to add new games to them. This lack of flexibility could shorten their life cycle. This paper presents a social robot on which several robotic games have been developed. Our robot uses a flexible and modular architecture that allows the creation of new skills by the composition of existing and simpler skills. With this architecture, the development of a new game mainly consists in the composition of the skills that are needed for this specific game. In this paper, we present the robot, its hardware and its software architecture, including its interaction capabilities. We also provide a detailed description of the development of five of the games the robot can play.The authors gratefully acknowledge the funds provided by the Spanish MICINN (Ministry of Science and Innovation) through the project "A new Approach to Social Robotics (AROS)". The research leading to these results has also received funding from the RoboCity2030-II-CM project(S2009/DPI-1559), funded by Programas de Actividades I+D en la Comunidad de Madrid and cofunded by Structural Funds ofthe EU

Augmented robotics dialog system for enhancing human-robot interaction

Augmented reality, augmented television and second screen are cutting edge technologies that provide end users extra and enhanced information related to certain events in real time. This enriched information helps users better understand such events, at the same time providing a more satisfactory experience. In the present paper, we apply this main idea to human-robot interaction (HRI), to how users and robots interchange information. The ultimate goal of this paper is to improve the quality of HRI, developing a new dialog manager system that incorporates enriched information from the semantic web. This work presents the augmented robotic dialog system (ARDS), which uses natural language understanding mechanisms to provide two features: (i) a non-grammar multimodal input (verbal and/or written) text; and (ii) a contextualization of the information conveyed in the interaction. This contextualization is achieved by information enrichment techniques that link the extracted information from the dialog with extra information about the world available in semantic knowledge bases. This enriched or contextualized information (information enrichment, semantic enhancement or contextualized information are used interchangeably in the rest of this paper) offers many possibilities in terms of HRI. For instance, it can enhance the robot's pro-activeness during a human-robot dialog (the enriched information can be used to propose new topics during the dialog, while ensuring a coherent interaction). Another possibility is to display additional multimedia content related to the enriched information on a visual device. This paper describes the ARDS and shows a proof of concept of its applications.The authors gratefully acknowledge the funds provided by the Spanish MICINN (Ministry of Science and Innovation) through the project “Aplicaciones de los robots sociales”, DPI2011-26980 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. The research leading to these results has received funding from the RoboCity2030-III-CM project (Robótica aplicada a la mejora de la calidad de vida de los ciudadanos. fase III; S2013/MIT-2748), funded by Programas de Actividades I+D en la Comunidad de Madrid and co-funded by the Structural Funds of the EU

Competition between molecular and dissociative adsorption of hydrogen on palladium clusters deposited on defective graphene

Producción CientíficaThe contribution of Pd doping to enhance the hydrogen storage capacity of porous carbon materials is investigated. Using the Density Functional Formalism, we have studied the competition between the molecular adsorption and the dissociative chemisorption of H2 on Pd clusters anchored on graphene vacancies. The molecular adsorption of H2 takes place with energies in the range of 0.7 - 0.3 eV for adsorption of one to six hydrogen molecules. Six molecules saturate the cluster, and additional hydrogen could only be adsorbed, with much smaller adsorption energies, at farther distances from the cluster. The dissociative chemisorption is the preferred adsorption channel from one to three hydrogen molecules, with adsorption energies in the range of 1.2 - 0.6 eV. After the first three molecules are dissociatively quemisorbed, three additional hydrogen molecules can be adsorbednon-dissociatively onto the Pd cluster with adsorption energies of 0.5 eV.The desorption of Pd-H complexes is prevented in all cases because the Pd clusters are firmly anchored to graphene vacancies. Our results are very promising and show that Pd clusters anchored on graphene vacancies retain their capacity to adsorb hydrogen and completely prevent the desorption of Pd-H complexes that would spoil the hydrogen releasing step of the cycle.Junta de Castilla y León (programa de apoyo a proyectos de investigación – Ref. VA050U14)Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Proyect MAT2011- 22781

Interaction of Hydrogen with Palladium Clusters Deposited on Graphene

Producción CientíficaHydrogen adsorption on nanoporous carbon materials is a promising technology for hydrogen storage. However, pure carbon materials do not meet the technological requirements due to the week binding of hydrogen to the pore walls. Experimental work has shown that doping with Pd atoms and clusters enhances the storage capacity of porous carbons. Therefore, we have investigated the role played by the Pd dopant on the enhancement mechanisms. By performing density functional calculations, we have found that hydrogen adsorbs on Pd clusters deposited on graphene following two channels, molecular adsorption and dissociative chemisorption. However, desorption of Pd-H complexes competes with desorption of hydrogen, and consequently desorption of Pd-H complexes would spoil the beneficial effect of the dopant. As a way to overcome this difficulty, Pd atoms and clusters can be anchored to defects of the graphene layer, like graphene vacancies. The competition between molecular adsorption and dissociative chemisorption of H2 on Pd6 anchored on a graphene vacancy has been studied in detail.Junta de Castilla y León (programa de apoyo a proyectos de investigación – Ref. VA050U14