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China's massive 'Belt and Road Initiative' (BRI) - designed to build infrastructure and coordinate policymaking across Eurasia and eastern Africa - is widely seen as a clearly-defined, top-down 'grand strategy', reflecting Beijing's growing ambition to reshape, or even dominate, regional and international order. This article argues that this view is mistaken. Foregrounding transformations in the Chinese party-state that shape China's foreign policy-making, it shows that, rather than being a coherent, geopolitically-driven grand strategy, BRI is an extremely loose, indeterminate scheme, driven primarily by competing domestic interests, particularly state capitalist interests, whose struggle for power and resources are already shaping BRI's design and implementation. This will generate outcomes that often diverge from top leaders' intentions and may even undermine key foreign policy goals.

De facto states—polities, such as Abkhazia (Georgia) or the Donetsk People's Republic (Ukraine), that appropriate many trappings of statehood without securing the status of full states—have been a constant presence in the postwar international order. Some de facto states, such as Northern Cyprus, survive for a long period of time. Others, including Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, are forcefully reintegrated into their parent states. Still others, such as Aceh in Indonesia, disappear as a result of peacemaking. A few, such as Eritrea, successfully transition to full statehood. What explains these very different outcomes? I argue that four factors account for much of this variation: the extent of military assistance that separatists receive from outside actors, the governance activities conducted by separatist insurgents, the fragmentation of the rebel movement, and the influence of government veto players. My analysis relies on an original dataset that includes all breakaway enclaves from 1945 to 2011. The findings enhance our understanding of separatist institutional outcomes, rebel governance, and the conditions that sustain nonstate territorial actors.

This study is aimed at investigating the effects of exogenous selenium (Se) on the ionic equilibrium and micro-domain distribution, state transitions between photosystem I (PSI) and photosystem II (PSII), and the photosynthetic carbon assimilation efficiency of tomato ( Solanum lycopersicon L.) seedlings under the influence of salt stress. The application of 0.01 mmol•L -1 exogenous Se had no significant effects on the selective transport capacity of sodium (Na), potassium (K), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) from the roots to leaves under salt stress. It, however, significantly hindered the absorption of Na by the root system and leaves, increased the ratios of K/Na, Ca/Na and Mg/Na, and relieved the nonuniformity of micro-domain ionic distribution, thus, mitigating the ionic homeostasis imbalance and ion toxicity induced by salt stress. Additionally, the application of exogenous Se overcame stomatal limitation, regulated the state transitions between PSI and PSII, and enhanced the initial and overall activity of Rubisco as well as the activities of Rubisco activase (RCA) and fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (FBPase). It also increased the levels of expression of nine relevant genes in Calvin cycle, which subsequently improved the concentration of photosynthetic substrates, balanced the distribution of activation energy between PSI and PSII, promoted the efficiency of CO 2 carboxylation and carbon assimilation, thereby increasing the photosynthetic efficiency of tomato seedling leaves under salt stress. Hence, the supply of exogenous Se can alleviate the inhibition of salt stress on tomato seedling growth by rebuilding ionic homeostasis and promoting photosynthetic capacity.

Mindful of the growing interest in non-Western and pre-modern political systems, we propose a framework for the analysis of states, state systems, and international orders. We provide a culturally neutral definition of the state and outline a method for assessing variation in political organization both within and above the state. Our framework cleanly delineates hierarchy from anarchy and can be applied to a diverse set of state systems. We then show how the content of international order inter-relates with system structure and the local density (interaction capacity) of a region. We argue that our framework captures similarities—and exposes differences—between different systems and orders over time and space. It strikes a balance between the traditional focus on the Western experience and the current trend toward regional studies in which it is difficult to accumulate knowledge in a rigorous manner.

•We present a novel connectome-to-connectome (C2C) transformation modeling framework.•The C2C models can predict individual task-specific connectomes from task-free connectome.•The C2C-transformed task connectomes outperform task-free data to predict behavior.•This approach quantitatively models how the brain reconfigures across mental states. The human brain flexibly controls different cognitive behaviors, such as memory and attention, to satisfy contextual demands. Much progress has been made to reveal task-induced modulations in the whole-brain functional connectome, but we still lack a way to model context-dependent changes. Here, we present a novel connectome-to-connectome (C2C) transformation framework that enables us to model the brain's functional reorganization from one connectome state to another in response to specific task goals. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging data from the Human Connectome Project, we demonstrate that the C2C model accurately generates an individual's task-related connectomes from their task-free (resting-state) connectome with a high degree of specificity across seven different cognitive states. Moreover, the C2C model amplifies behaviorally relevant individual differences in the task-free connectome, thereby improving behavioral predictions with increased power, achieving similar performance with just a third of the subjects needed when relying on resting-state data alone. Finally, the C2C model reveals how the brain reorganizes between cognitive states. Our observations support the existence of reliable state-specific subsystems in the brain and demonstrate that we can quantitatively model how the connectome reconfigures to different cognitive states, enabling more accurate predictions of behavior with fewer subjects.

This paper is a new step towards understanding why “quantum nonlocality” is a misleading concept. Metaphorically speaking, “quantum nonlocality” is Janus faced. One face is an apparent nonlocality of the Lüders projection and another face is Bell nonlocality (a wrong conclusion that the violation of Bell type inequalities implies the existence of mysterious instantaneous influences between distant physical systems). According to the Lüders projection postulate, a quantum measurement performed on one of the two distant entangled physical systems modifies their compound quantum state instantaneously. Therefore, if the quantum state is considered to be an attribute of the individual physical system and if one assumes that experimental outcomes are produced in a perfectly random way, one quickly arrives at the contradiction. It is a primary source of speculations about a spooky action at a distance. Bell nonlocality as defined above was explained and rejected by several authors; thus, we concentrate in this paper on the apparent nonlocality of the Lüders projection. As already pointed out by Einstein, the quantum paradoxes disappear if one adopts the purely statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics (QM). In the statistical interpretation of QM, if probabilities are considered to be objective properties of random experiments we show that the Lüders projection corresponds to the passage from joint probabilities describing all set of data to some marginal conditional probabilities describing some particular subsets of data. If one adopts a subjective interpretation of probabilities, such as QBism, then the Lüders projection corresponds to standard Bayesian updating of the probabilities. The latter represents degrees of beliefs of local agents about outcomes of individual measurements which are placed or which will be placed at distant locations. In both approaches, probability-transformation does not happen in the physical space, but only in the information space. Thus, all speculations about spooky interactions or spooky predictions at a distance are simply misleading. Coming back to Bell nonlocality, we recall that in a recent paper we demonstrated, using exclusively the quantum formalism, that CHSH inequalities may be violated for some quantum states only because of the incompatibility of quantum observables and Bohr’s complementarity. Finally, we explain that our criticism of quantum nonlocality is in the spirit of Hertz-Boltzmann methodology of scientific theories.

The role of aquatic vegetation restoration in mitigating lake eutrophication is well-recognized, yet the underlying nutrient dynamics-vegetation response relationship remains poorly quantified, hindering a mechanistic understanding of grass-algae regime shifts. To address this, the Wetland Eco-dynamic Model for Submerged Plants (WET) was developed to mechanistically simulate ecological processes within the water–sediment-plant continuum by coupling hydrodynamics, nutrient cycling, and plant growth modules. Applied to Lake Taihu (2005–2019), the model effectively simulated submerged plant responses to hydrological and physicochemical parameters, with simulated vegetation cover validation achieving an R 2 of 0.68. A multi-scale analysis further identified a significant positive correlation between N:P ratios and aquatic vegetation cover. The model was subsequently employed to simulate vegetation dynamics under 121 distinct nutrient regulation scenarios, revealing that aquatic vegetation cover exerts a stronger influence on total phosphorus than on total nitrogen, a relationship characterized by steady-state nonlinearity. The findings demonstrate that under stable meteorological, hydrological, and pollution load conditions, managing aquatic vegetation is an effective eutrophication mitigation strategy for large, shallow lakes. Specifically for the phosphorus-limited Lake Taihu, simulations indicate that increasing vegetation coverage to 27.7% would shift its trophic status from eutrophic to oligotrophic-mesotrophic. By systematically quantifying these nonlinear responses, this study provides operational thresholds and a scientific basis for lake ecological management, overcoming a key limitation of traditional qualitative descriptions.

Developing sustainable synthesis method of versatile zeolites to overcome the shortcoming of traditional process is of significant for development of green chemistry and environmentally friendly techniques. In this work, MFI zeolite (ZSM-5) was synthesized through organotemplate-, solvent- and seed-free sustainable process comprising physical grinding and quasi-solid state crystallization and utilizing commercial silica gel or Stöber colloidal SiO 2 as silica source. The key influencing factors to this sustainable synthesis process, such as starting material composition, crystallization temperature and time, had been unambiguously investigated by combining a series of characterization techniques. It is revealed that the starting material with SiO 2 /Al 2 O 3 and Na 2 O/SiO 2 at 30–40 and 0.072, respectively, is suitable to obtain zeolite product with high crystallinity. The presence of right amount of water (or alcohol) is also crucial. In addition, this green synthesis method can be extended into the fabrication of encapsulated metal-zeolite bifunctional catalyst, which is effective in hydroisomerization of n -heptane. These results are instructive for development of sustainable synthesis of aluminosilicate zeolites and derived heterogeneous catalysts. Graphical Abstract Highlight SiO 2 /Al 2 O 3 of 30–40 and Na 2 O/SiO 2 of 0.072 are crucial for sustainable synthesis of ZSM-5. The key role of water can be replaced by alcohol for successful synthesis of ZSM-5. The sustainable synthesis strategy is used to fabricate Pt-ZSM-5 bifunctional catalysts. The catalysts with encapsulation structure will be promising in hydroisomerization of n-heptane.

We investigate a conditional quantum state preparation process for a generalized form of the ‘near states’ in various representations. We derive transformation rules for the analytical representation of pure states. Additionally, we obtain transformation rules for both the Glauber-Sudarshan and Wigner representations of states. The latter is particularly convenient for calculating the output state when dealing with mixed states. Furthermore, we demonstrate that small thermal noises can effectively increase success probability without compromising the nonclassical properties of the output state.

Atomic engineering of single atom catalysts (SACs) with high-density available active sites and optimized electronic properties can substantially boost catalytic efficacy. Herein, we report a solid-state transformation strategy to access Co SACs by introducing Co species from commercial Co 2 O 3 powders into nitrogen-doped carbon support. The catalyst exhibited excellent catalytic activity, with a turnover frequency (TOF) of 2,307 h −1 and yield of 95%, in the direct C-C cross-coupling of benzyl alcohol and 1-phenylethanol (1 atm O 2 @80 °C) to yield chalcone. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrate the coordination environment and electronic metal-support interaction impact the catalytic pathway. In particular, a wide substrate scope and a broad functional-group tolerance of this SAC were validated, and the employment of this strategy for large-scale synthesis was also shown to be feasible. This work might shed light on the facile and scalable synthesis of highly active, selective, and stable SACs for heterogeneous catalysis.