Framing Analysis of Belt and Road Initiative

In 2013, Chinese president, Xi Jinping, announced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to his audience in Kazakhstan. He stated that this will involve the construction of roads, railways, and even special trade corridors, among others along the ancient Silk Road in a bid to foster economic, political, and social relationship between China and partner countries. This paper focuses on analyzing how leading newspapers in Nigeria, Malaysia, and Vietnam, namely The Sun, Vanguard, The Punch, The Nation, NewStraits Times, Malay Mail, Business Insider, The Star, Saigon Times and Vietnamnet Bridge, have framed and communicated this multi-national project to their various audiences six years after Xi’s announcement. Working on 200 editorial contents published between May 2017 and March 2019 across the selected newspapers, this explores how they framed BRI. We found that while most of the reports have framed BRI positively, others are framed to reflect cautious optimism. We suggest that BRI managers should take necessary steps to engage the media, policy makers, and other stakeholders to properly educate them on the vision and mission of the initiative

Hypertension in China: burdens, guidelines and policy responses: a state-of-the-art review.

Hypertension is a leading risk factor of cardiovascular disease and it is becoming increasingly prevalent globally. Correspondingly, the Chinese government and public health institutions have issued a series of policy documents and guidelines for hypertension. However, no comprehensive review of such documents has been conducted. Hence, this review aims to provide an up-to-date and comprehensive assessment of not only the disease burden, but also hypertension management policies and guidelines in China. A total of 15 epidemiological studies based on national population surveys, 15 Chinese Hypertension Guidelines, and seven policy documents were identified. We found a larger burden of hypertension in men, while the awareness, treatment, and control rates have remained low in both sexes. The ranges of hypertension prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control rate among hypertensive patients were 18.0-44.7%, 23.6-56.2%, 14.2-48.5%, and 4.2-30.1% respectively. Chinese hypertension guidelines provide evidence-based instructions to healthcare practitioners over hypertension management in which primary healthcare is increasingly emphasized. Finally, the policy documents set national goals for hypertension management and standardized the services provided in primary healthcare. The findings highlight the importance of integrating new guidelines into hypertension management provided by primary healthcare practitioners and the need to evaluate the implementation of guidelines and policies

Can oil prices predict the direction of exchange rate movements? An empirical and economic analysis for the case of India

This study investigates whether oil prices have enough predictive information to predict the direction of the movement of exchange rate by examining the type of cointegration relationship between exchange rate and oil prices in India between 1991Q1 and 2013Q1. Our findings suggest the existence of cointegration relationship between exchange rate and oil prices using both Engle–Granger two-step cointegration test and Johansen cointegration test. Using a momentum threshold autoregressive consistent model, we find evidence in favour of asymmetric cointegration between the two variables. Nevertheless we find no evidence to support asymmetric cointegration relationship between the two variables when threshold autoregressive, threshold autoregressive consistent, and momentum threshold autoregressive models are used. Thus, the results suggest that for certain time period, the adjustment process between exchange rate and oil price is constant, which makes it conducive for predicting the direction of exchange rate movement. However, evidence of asymmetric cointegration suggests that the stable relationship is likely to be interrupted with intervals of structural change implying correction in the dynamics of influencing factor

Classification of diabetic retinopathy: Past, present and future

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of visual impairment and blindness worldwide. Since DR was first recognized as an important complication of diabetes, there have been many attempts to accurately classify the severity and stages of disease. These historical classification systems evolved as understanding of disease pathophysiology improved, methods of imaging and assessing DR changed, and effective treatments were developed. Current DR classification systems are effective, and have been the basis of major research trials and clinical management guidelines for decades. However, with further new developments such as recognition of diabetic retinal neurodegeneration, new imaging platforms such as optical coherence tomography and ultra wide-field retinal imaging, artificial intelligence and new treatments, our current classification systems have significant limitations that need to be addressed. In this paper, we provide a historical review of different classification systems for DR, and discuss the limitations of our current classification systems in the context of new developments. We also review the implications of new developments in the field, to see how they might feature in a future, updated classification