The Unintended Consequences of Trade Protection on the Environment

We analyze the impact of a rise in protectionism on environmental regulation. Using the 2018 US-China trade war as a quasi-natural experiment, we  nd that higher exposure to tariffs leads to less stringent regulation targets in China, increasing air pollution and carbon emissions. Politically motivated changes in environmental policies rationalize our results: the central government and local party secretaries relax environmental regulations to mitigate the negative consequences of tariffs for polluting industries. We find heterogeneous e ects depending on politicians' characteristics: younger, recently appointed, and more connected local politicians are more likely to ease environmental regulation. This policy reaction benefits politicians: prefectures with the most considerable easing in environmental regulation manage to curb the negative economic consequences of the trade war, while their mayors have a relatively larger probability of promotion. This paper presents the  first empirical evidence of political incentives to manipulate environmental regulation to curb negative economic shocks

Dexmedetomidine Versus Propofol Sedation Improves Sublingual Microcirculation After Cardiac Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial

ObjectivesTo compare the effects of dexmedetomidine and propofol on sublingual microcirculation in patients after cardiac surgery.DesignA prospective, randomized, single-blind study.SettingUniversity hospital.ParticipantsAdult patients undergoing elective valve surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass.InterventionsOn arrival in the intensive care unit (ICU), patients were assigned randomly to receive either dexmedetomidine (0.2-1.5 μg/kg/h) or propofol (5-50 μg/kg/min) with open-label titration to a target Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale of 0 to –3.Measurements and Main ResultsSublingual microcirculation was recorded using sidestream dark-field imaging at ICU admission (baseline [T1]) and 4 hours (T2) and 24 hours after ICU admission (T3). At T2, median changes in perfused small-vessel density and the De Backer score from baseline were significantly greater in the dexmedetomidine group (n = 29) than in the propofol group (n = 32) (1.3 v 0 mm/mm2, p = 0.025; 0.9 v –0.1/mm, p = 0.005, respectively); median changes in small-vessel density and the proportion of perfused small vessels from baseline also tended to be higher in the dexmedetomidine group compared with the propofol group (1.0 v –0.1 mm/mm2, p = 0.050; 2.1% v 0.5%, p = 0.062, respectively). At T3, there still was a trend toward greater improvements in the small vessel density, proportion of perfused small-vessels, perfused small-vessel density, and De Backer score from baseline in the dexmedetomidine group than in the propofol group.ConclusionsThis trial demonstrated that dexmedetomidine sedation may be better able to improve microcirculation in cardiac surgery patients during the early postoperative period compared with propofol

Can Large Language Model Agents Simulate Human Trust Behaviors?

Large Language Model (LLM) agents have been increasingly adopted as simulation tools to model humans in applications such as social science. However, one fundamental question remains: can LLM agents really simulate human behaviors? In this paper, we focus on one of the most critical behaviors in human interactions, trust, and aim to investigate whether or not LLM agents can simulate human trust behaviors. We first find that LLM agents generally exhibit trust behaviors, referred to as agent trust, under the framework of Trust Games, which are widely recognized in behavioral economics. Then, we discover that LLM agents can have high behavioral alignment with humans regarding trust behaviors, particularly for GPT-4, indicating the feasibility to simulate human trust behaviors with LLM agents. In addition, we probe into the biases in agent trust and the differences in agent trust towards agents and humans. We also explore the intrinsic properties of agent trust under conditions including advanced reasoning strategies and external manipulations. We further offer important implications of our discoveries for various scenarios where trust is paramount. Our study provides new insights into the behaviors of LLM agents and the fundamental analogy between LLMs and humans.Comment: The first two authors contributed equally. Project website: https://www.camel-ai.org/research/agent-trus

Can large language model agents simulate human trust behaviors?

Large Language Model (LLM) agents have been increasingly adopted as simulation tools to model humans in applications such as social science. However, one fundamental question remains: can LLM agents really simulate human behaviors? In this paper, we focus on one of the most critical behaviors in human interactions, trust, and aim to investigate whether or not LLM agents can simulate human trust behaviors. We first find that LLM agents generally exhibit trust behaviors, referred to as agent trust, under the framework of Trust Games, which are widely recognized in behavioral economics. Then, we discover that LLM agents can have high behavioral alignment with humans regarding trust behaviors, particularly for GPT-4, indicating the feasibility to simulate human trust behaviors with LLM agents. In addition, we probe into the biases in agent trust and the differences in agent trust towards agents and humans. We also explore the intrinsic properties of agent trust under conditions including advanced reasoning strategies and external manipulations. We further offer important implications of our discoveries for various scenarios where trust is paramount. Our study provides new insights into the behaviors of LLM agents and the fundamental analogy between LLMs and humans

2D Titanium Carbide (MXene) Based Films: Expanding the Frontier of Functional Film Materials

2D titanium carbide (Ti3C2Tx) MXene films, with their well-defined microstructures and chemical functionality, provide a macroscale use of nano-sized Ti3C2Tx flakes. Ti3C2Tx films have attractive physicochemical properties favorable for device design, such as high electrical conductivity (up to 20 000 S cm–1), impressive volumetric capacitance (1500 F cm–3), strong in-plane mechanical strength (up to 570 MPa), and a high degree of flexibility. Here, the appealing features of Ti3C2Tx-based films enabled by the layer-to-layer arrangement of nanosheets are reviewed. We devote attention to the key strategies for actualizing desirable characteristics in Ti3C2Tx-based functional films, such as high and tunable electrical conductivity, outstanding mechanical properties, enhanced oxidation-resistance and shelf life, hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity, adjustable porosity, and convenient processability. This review further discusses fundamental aspects and advances in the applications of Ti3C2Tx-based films with a focus on illuminating the relationship between the structural features and the resulting performances for target applications. Finally, the challenges and opportunities in terms of future research, development, and applications of Ti3C2Tx-based films are suggested. A comprehensive understanding of these competitive features and challenges shall provide guidelines and inspiration for the further development of Ti3C2Tx-based functional films, and contribute to the advances in MXene technology

Circular RNA and intervertebral disc degeneration: unravelling mechanisms and implications

Low back pain (LBP) is a major public health problem worldwide and a significant health and economic burden. Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is the reason for LBP. However, we have not identified effective therapeutic strategies to address this challenge. With accumulating knowledge on the role of circular RNAs in the pathogenesis of IDD, we realised that circular RNAs (circRNAs) may have tremendous therapeutic potential and clinical application prospects in this field. This review presents an overview of the current understanding of characteristics, classification, biogenesis, and function of circRNAs and summarises the protective and detrimental circRNAs involved in the intervertebral disc that have been studied thus far. This review is aimed to help researchers better understand the regulatory role of circRNAs in the progression of IDD, reveal their clinical therapeutic potential, and provide a theoretical basis for the prevention and targeted treatment of IDD

Ksak: A high-throughput tool for alignment-free phylogenetics

Phylogenetic tools are fundamental to the studies of evolutionary relationships. In this paper, we present Ksak, a novel high-throughput tool for alignment-free phylogenetic analysis. Ksak computes the pairwise distance matrix between molecular sequences, using seven widely accepted k-mer based distance measures. Based on the distance matrix, Ksak constructs the phylogenetic tree with standard algorithms. When benchmarked with a golden standard 16S rRNA dataset, Ksak was found to be the most accurate tool among all five tools compared and was 19% more accurate than ClustalW2, a high-accuracy multiple sequence aligner. Above all, Ksak was tens to hundreds of times faster than ClustalW2, which helps eliminate the computation limit currently encountered in large-scale multiple sequence alignment. Ksak is freely available at https://github.com/labxscut/ksak