Regional Output Spillovers in China: Estimates from a VAR Model

Interregional spillover effects are central to China’s growth policy; yet relatively little is known about the strength and duration of these spillovers and whether their characteristics have changed over time. This paper examines the spillover of output between the three commonly-used regions of China: coastal, central and western regions. We find that there are strong spillovers from the coastal region to both other regions, from the central region to the western region but that shocks to the western region have no flow-on effect for the other two regions. Thus a policy of developing the coastal region is likely to indirectly benefit the other two regions.Regional Spillovers, China, regional growth

Inter-Regional Spillovers in China: The Importance of Common Shocks and the Definition of Regions

This paper examines the question of inter-regional spillovers in China. We argue that this is a central question in Chinese economic policy, given the marked regional disparities that exist and the concern of policy-makers to ameliorate them. We analyse this question within the framework of a six-region vectorautoregressive model which we subject to extensive sensitivity analysis, with particular attention paid to the effects on the results of strong common output movements. We find the results of dynamic simulations to be importantly dependent on model specification; in particular, they are sensitive to the order in which the variables enter the model. After an assessment of various alternatives, we are able to specify a model with tolerable robustness by using data which has been purged of the effects of national output fluctuations. We find some expected but also some unexpected results. In the first category, the Yellow River and Changjiang River regions are found to have spillover effects on other regions although they are more extensive for the former; the South Western region has no significant spillover effects on the rest of the country, consistently with the results of previous research. However, in contrast both to other research and to our expectations, shocks to the South Eastern region affect mainly the region itself with little spillover to the other regions. The same is true of the North East region while the North West region has extensive spillovers to other regions. We conclude that there is still much to be learned about the magnitude and timing of inter-regional spillovers before firm policy conclusions can be drawn.

Inter-Regional Output Spillovers in China: Disentangling National from Regional Shocks

This paper reports an investigation of the spillover effects of output shocks between regions in China. We use a six-region classification first suggested about two decades ago which still captures relatively homogeneous regions. The six regions are: South East, Changjiang River, Yellow River, North East, South West and North West. We start from a recent paper by Groenewold, Lee and Chen (2005b) which uses the same six regions and a vector autoregressive (VAR) framework. They find that the spillover effects are crucially dependent on the order of the variables in the model and argue that this is due to common national influences. They overcome the “ordering problem” by purging the regional outputs of their common national components using a preliminary regression of regional outputs on national output. We implement an alternative solution to the ordering problem which does not involve this two-step procedure. We proceed by including national output directly into our model. Moreover, we extend their analysis by investigating Granger causality between regional and national output measures as well as block exogeneity. Our results confirm important conclusions of the earlier paper but also raise some interesting differences.

Functional Topography and Development of Inhibitory Reticulothalamic Barreloid Projections

The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) is the main source of inhibition to the somatosensory thalamus (ventrobasal nucleus, VB) in mice. However, the functional topography and development of these projections with respect to the VB barreloids has been largely unexplored. In this respect, to assist in the study of these projections, we have utilized a vesicular gamma-aminobutryic acid (GABA) transporter (VGAT)-Venus transgenic mouse line to develop a brain slice preparation that enables the rapid identification of inhibitory neurons and projections. We demonstrate the utility of our in vitro brain slice preparation for physiologically mapping inhibitory reticulothalamic (RT) topography, using laser-scanning photostimulation via glutamate uncaging. Furthermore, we utilized this slice preparation to compare the development of excitatory and inhibitory projections to VB. We found that excitatory projections to the barreloids, created by ascending projections from the brain stem, develop by postnatal day 2–3 (P2–P3). By contrast, inhibitory projections to the barreloids lag ~5 days behind excitatory projections to the barreloids, developing by P7–P8. We probed this lag in inhibitory projection development through early postnatal whisker lesions. We found that in whisker-lesioned animals, the development of inhibitory projections to the barreloids closed by P4, in register with that of the excitatory projections to the barreloids. Our findings demonstrate both developmental and topographic organizational features of the RT projection to the VB barreloids, whose mechanisms can now be further examined utilizing the VGAT-Venus mouse slice preparation that we have characterized.SVM CORP (Grant LAV 3487

Functional Topography and Development of Inhibitory Reticulothalamic Barreloid Projections

The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) is the main source of inhibition to the somatosensory thalamus (ventrobasal nucleus, VB) in mice. However, the functional topography and development of these projections with respect to the VB barreloids has been largely unexplored. In this respect, to assist in the study of these projections, we have utilized a vesicular gamma-aminobutryic acid (GABA) transporter (VGAT)-Venus transgenic mouse line to develop a brain slice preparation that enables the rapid identification of inhibitory neurons and projections. We demonstrate the utility of our in vitro brain slice preparation for physiologically mapping inhibitory reticulothalamic (RT) topography, using laser-scanning photostimulation via glutamate uncaging. Furthermore, we utilized this slice preparation to compare the development of excitatory and inhibitory projections to VB. We found that excitatory projections to the barreloids, created by ascending projections from the brain stem, develop by postnatal day 2–3 (P2–P3). By contrast, inhibitory projections to the barreloids lag ~5 days behind excitatory projections to the barreloids, developing by P7–P8. We probed this lag in inhibitory projection development through early postnatal whisker lesions. We found that in whisker-lesioned animals, the development of inhibitory projections to the barreloids closed by P4, in register with that of the excitatory projections to the barreloids. Our findings demonstrate both developmental and topographic organizational features of the RT projection to the VB barreloids, whose mechanisms can now be further examined utilizing the VGAT-Venus mouse slice preparation that we have characterized

Optogenetic mapping of cerebellar inhibitory circuitry reveals spatially biased coordination of interneurons via electrical synapses

© The Author(s), 2014. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Cell 7 (2014): 1601–1613, doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2014.04.047.We used high-speed optogenetic mapping technology to examine the spatial organization of local inhibitory circuits formed by cerebellar interneurons. Transgenic mice expressing channelrhodopsin-2 exclusively in molecular layer interneurons allowed us to focally photostimulate these neurons, while measuring resulting responses in postsynaptic Purkinje cells. This approach revealed that interneurons converge upon Purkinje cells over a broad area and that at least seven interneurons form functional synapses with a single Purkinje cell. The number of converging interneurons was reduced by treatment with gap junction blockers, revealing that electrical synapses between interneurons contribute substantially to the spatial convergence. Remarkably, gap junction blockers affected convergence in sagittal slices, but not in coronal slices, indicating a sagittal bias in electrical coupling between interneurons. We conclude that electrical synapse networks spatially coordinate interneurons in the cerebellum and may also serve this function in other brain regions.This work was supported by a CRP grant from the National Research Foundation of Singapore and by the World Class Institute (WCI) Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Korea (NRF grant number WCI 2009-003)

Correction: Dynamic Remodeling of Dendritic Arbors in GABAergic Interneurons of Adult Visual Cortex

Chronic in vivo imaging of fluorescent-labeled neurons in adult mice reveals extension and retraction of dendrites in GABAergic non-pyramidal interneurons of the cerebral cortex

Studies of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago water transport and its relationship to basin-local forcings : results from AO-FVCOM

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2016. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 121 (2016): 4392–4415, doi:10.1002/2016JC011634.A high-resolution (up to 2 km), unstructured-grid, fully coupled Arctic sea ice-ocean Finite-Volume Community Ocean Model (AO-FVCOM) was employed to simulate the flow and transport through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) over the period 1978–2013. The model-simulated CAA outflow flux was in reasonable agreement with the flux estimated based on measurements across Davis Strait, Nares Strait, Lancaster Sound, and Jones Sounds. The model was capable of reproducing the observed interannual variability in Davis Strait and Lancaster Sound. The simulated CAA outflow transport was highly correlated with the along-strait and cross-strait sea surface height (SSH) difference. Compared with the wind forcing, the sea level pressure (SLP) played a dominant role in establishing the SSH difference and the correlation of the CAA outflow with the cross-strait SSH difference can be explained by a simple geostrophic balance. The change in the simulated CAA outflow transport through Davis Strait showed a negative correlation with the net flux through Fram Strait. This correlation was related to the variation of the spatial distribution and intensity of the slope current over the Beaufort Sea and Greenland shelves. The different basin-scale surface forcings can increase the model uncertainty in the CAA outflow flux up to 15%. The daily adjustment of the model elevation to the satellite-derived SSH in the North Atlantic region outside Fram Strait could produce a larger North Atlantic inflow through west Svalbard and weaken the outflow from the Arctic Ocean through east Greenland.NSF Grant Numbers: OCE-1203393, PLR-1203643; National Natural Science Foundation of China Grant Number: 41276197; Shanghai Pujiang Program Grant Number: 12PJ1404100; Shanghai Shuguang Program2016-12-2

E-Cadherin/β-Catenin Complex and the Epithelial Barrier

E-Cadherin/β-catenin complex plays an important role in maintaining epithelial integrity and disrupting this complex affect not only the adhesive repertoire of a cell, but also the Wnt-signaling pathway. Aberrant expression of the complex is associated with a wide variety of human malignancies and disorders of fibrosis resulting from epithelial-mesenchymal transition. These associations provide insights into the complexity that is likely responsible for the fibrosis/tumor suppressive action of E-cadherin/β-catenin