InChinese Economic Statecraft, William J. Norris introduces an innovative theory that pinpoints how states employ economic tools of national power to pursue their strategic objectives. Norris shows ...what Chinese economic statecraft is, how it works, and why it is more or less effective. Norris provides an accessible tool kit to help us better understand important economic developments in the People's Republic of China. He links domestic Chinese political economy with the international ramifications of China's economic power as a tool for realizing China's strategic foreign policy interests. He presents a novel approach to studying economic statecraft that calls attention to the central challenge of how the state is (or is not) able to control and direct the behavior of economic actors.
Norris identifies key causes of Chinese state control through tightly structured, substate and crossnational comparisons of business-government relations. These cases range across three important arenas of China's grand strategy that prominently feature a strategic role for economics: China's efforts to secure access to vital raw materials located abroad, Mainland relations toward Taiwan, and China's sovereign wealth funds. Norris spent more than two years conducting field research in China and Taiwan during which he interviewed current and former government officials, academics, bankers, journalists, advisors, lawyers, and businesspeople. The ideas in this book are applicable beyond China and help us to understand how states exercise international economic power in the twenty-first century.
Past research has provided support for the existence of a negativity bias, the tendency for negativity to have a stronger impact than positivity. Theoretically, the negativity bias provides an ...evolutionary advantage, as it is more critical for survival to avoid a harmful stimulus than to pursue a potentially helpful one. The current paper reviews the theoretical grounding of the negativity bias in the Evaluative Space Model, and presents recent findings using a multilevel approach that further elucidate the mechanisms underlying the negativity bias and underscore the importance of the negativity bias for human functioning.
We assess evidence relevant to Earth's equilibrium climate sensitivity per doubling of atmospheric CO2, characterized by an effective sensitivity S . This evidence includes feedback process ...understanding, the historical climate record, and the paleoclimate record. An S value lower than 2 K is difficult to reconcile with any of the three lines of evidence. The amount of cooling during the Last Glacial Maximum provides strong evidence against values of S greater than 4.5 K. Other lines of evidence in combination also show that this is relatively unlikely. We use a Bayesian approach to produce a probability density (PDF) for S given all the evidence, including tests of robustness to difficult‐to‐quantify uncertainties and different priors. The 66% range is 2.6‐3.9 K for our Baseline calculation, and remains within 2.3‐4.5 K under the robustness tests; corresponding 5‐95% ranges are 2.3‐4.7 K, bounded by 2.0‐5.7 K (although such high‐confidence ranges should be regarded more cautiously). This indicates a stronger constraint on S than reported in past assessments, by lifting the low end of the range. This narrowing occurs because the three lines of evidence agree and are judged to be largely independent, and because of greater confidence in understanding feedback processes and in combining evidence. We identify promising avenues for further narrowing the range in S , in particular using comprehensive models and process understanding to address limitations in the traditional forcing‐feedback paradigm for interpreting past changes.
The recent association of several short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with early-type galaxies with low star formation rates demonstrates that short bursts arise from a different progenitor mechanism than ...long bursts. However, since the duration distributions of the two classes overlap, membership is not always easily established. The picture is complicated by occasional softer, extended emission lasting tens of seconds after the initial spikelike emission comprising an otherwise short burst. Using the large BATSE sample with time-tagged event (TTE) data, we show that the fundamental defining characteristic of the short-burst class is that the initial spike exhibits negligible spectral evolution at energies above 625 keV. The behavior is nearly ubiquitous for the 260 bursts with T sub(90) < 2 s for which the BATSE TTE data type completely included the initial spike. We find this same signature--negligible spectral lag--for six Swift BAT short bursts and one HETE-2 short burst. We also analyze a small sample of "short" BATSE bursts--those with the most fluent, intense extended emission. The same lack of evolution on the pulse timescale obtains for the extended emission in the brighter bursts for which significant measurements can be made. We also show that the dynamic range in the ratio of peak intensities, spike:extended, is 6 10 super(4). However, for our BATSE sample the total counts fluence of the extended component equals or exceeds that in the spike by a factor of several. A high Lorentz factor, 6500-1000, might explain the negligible lags.
Doped Nanocrystals Norris, David J; Efros, Alexander L; Erwin, Steven C
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
03/2008, Letnik:
319, Številka:
5871
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The critical role that dopants play in semiconductor devices has stimulated research on the properties and the potential applications of semiconductor nanocrystals, or colloidal quantum dots, doped ...with intentional impurities. We review advances in the chemical synthesis of doped nanocrystals, in the theoretical understanding of the fundamental mechanisms that control doping, and in the creation of highly conducting nanocrystalline films. Because impurities can be used to alter the properties of nanoscale materials in desirable and controllable ways, doped nanocrystals can address key problems in applications from solar cells to bioimaging.
The flagellum is one of the most sophisticated self-assembling molecular machines in bacteria. Powered by the proton-motive force, the flagellum rapidly rotates in either a clockwise or ...counterclockwise direction, which ultimately controls bacterial motility and behavior. Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica have served as important model systems for extensive genetic, biochemical, and structural analysis of the flagellum, providing unparalleled insights into its structure, function, and gene regulation. Despite these advances, our understanding of flagellar assembly and rotational mechanisms remains incomplete, in part because of the limited structural information available regarding the intact rotor–stator complex and secretion apparatus. Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) has become a valuable imaging technique capable of visualizing the intact flagellar motor in cells at molecular resolution. Because the resolution that can be achieved by cryo-ET with large bacteria (such as E. coli and S. enterica) is limited, analysis of small-diameter bacteria (including Borrelia burgdorferi and Campylobacter jejuni) can provide additional insights into the in situ structure of the flagellar motor and other cellular components. This review is focused on the application of cryo-ET, in combination with genetic and biophysical approaches, to the study of flagellar structures and its potential for improving the understanding of rotor–stator interactions, the rotational switching mechanism, and the secretion and assembly of flagellar components.
Metallic nanostructures now play an important role in many applications. In particular, for the emerging fields of plasmonics and nanophotonics, the ability to engineer metals on nanometric scales ...allows the development of new devices and the study of exciting physics. This review focuses on top-down nanofabrication techniques for engineering metallic nanostructures, along with computational and experimental characterization techniques. A variety of current and emerging applications are also covered.
The locus coeruleus noradrenergic (LC-NE) system is one of the first systems engaged following a stressful event. While numerous groups have demonstrated that LC-NE neurons are activated by many ...different stressors, the underlying neural circuitry and the role of this activity in generating stress-induced anxiety has not been elucidated. Using a combination of in vivo chemogenetics, optogenetics, and retrograde tracing, we determine that increased tonic activity of the LC-NE system is necessary and sufficient for stress-induced anxiety and aversion. Selective inhibition of LC-NE neurons during stress prevents subsequent anxiety-like behavior. Exogenously increasing tonic, but not phasic, activity of LC-NE neurons is alone sufficient for anxiety-like and aversive behavior. Furthermore, endogenous corticotropin-releasing hormone+ (CRH+) LC inputs from the amygdala increase tonic LC activity, inducing anxiety-like behaviors. These studies position the LC-NE system as a critical mediator of acute stress-induced anxiety and offer a potential intervention for preventing stress-related affective disorders.
•Inhibition of LC-NE neurons during stress prevents subsequent anxiety-like behavior•Increased tonic LC-NE neuronal activity promotes anxiety-like and aversive behavior•CRH+ CeA-LC projections increase LC-NE activity and promote anxiogenic responses•CRH+ CeA-LC-induced anxiety-like behavior is mediated by CRHR1 receptors
McCall et al. identify locus coeruleus (LC) neuronal activity as a critical mediator of stress-induced anxiety. Selective modulation of LC activity bidirectionally controls anxiety-like and aversive behaviors. Anatomical studies identify amygdalar CRH+ inputs that modulate LC activity and drive anxiety-like behavior.
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