Genome-wide DNA hypomethylation and RNA:DNA hybrid accumulation in Aicardi-Goutières syndrome.

Aicardi-Goutières syndrome (AGS) is a severe childhood inflammatory disorder that shows clinical and genetic overlap with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). AGS is thought to arise from the accumulation of incompletely metabolized endogenous nucleic acid species owing to mutations in nucleic acid-degrading enzymes TREX1 (AGS1), RNase H2 (AGS2, 3 and 4), and SAMHD1 (AGS5). However, the identity and source of such immunogenic nucleic acid species remain undefined. Using genome-wide approaches, we show that fibroblasts from AGS patients with AGS1-5 mutations are burdened by excessive loads of RNA:DNA hybrids. Using MethylC-seq, we show that AGS fibroblasts display pronounced and global loss of DNA methylation and demonstrate that AGS-specific RNA:DNA hybrids often occur within DNA hypomethylated regions. Altogether, our data suggest that RNA:DNA hybrids may represent a common immunogenic form of nucleic acids in AGS and provide the first evidence of epigenetic perturbations in AGS, furthering the links between AGS and SLE

The Dynamics of Corruption and Unemployment in a Growth Model with Heterogeneous Labour

This paper presents an overlapping generations growth model with heterogeneous labour, endogenous unemployment, and public sector corruption. Unlike most previous studies, the model does not separate public officials and private individuals into two distinct groups. Instead, taking up bureaucratic appointment as a public servant is modelled as an occupational choice, which then allows for the endogenous determination of the proportion of public o¢fficials, the share of corrupt officials among them, and the public investment efficiency of the economy within the dynamic system. Parameterised for Nigeria, the dynamics of endogenous corruption and unemployment, as well as their policy tradeoff, are studied using numerical policy experiments based on relevant themes in the country, which include public sector downsizing and social intervention schemes

Responding to COVID-19 crisis: effectiveness of HR implementation, a contrast between essential and non-essential sector in Malaysia

The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis that has greatly impacted the business environment. To contain the disease from spreading further, Malaysia had declared a Movement Control Order (MCO) where every citizen has to stay at home unless there is a valid reason. This cause many businesses to struggle to stay afloat during the pandemic. This paper will simultaneously evaluate the efforts of Human Resource departments across different industries and focus a lens on individual employees’ experience of working during a global pandemic. It will also address whether the presence of a crisis management plan in different stages of crisis and what role should HR play in it. Methodology: An online survey was distributed, and data from N = 261 qualified participants was collected. Employees came from a wide range of industries (N=38 industries), and this represented both the Essential sector and Non-essential industry sectors as defined in the MCO. Analysis: In order to address the Research Objectives, correlation and ANOVA test were conducted, using the IBM SPSS Version 25 statistical software. Results showed that there are communications from HR but there are no significant differences between essential and non-essential sector in the aspect of frequency and method. However, each sector shows different level of optimism, well-being, stress and negativity towards career outlook. Hence, HR should have different actions for each sector. During crisis, employees agree that HR plays a significant role in each stages of crisis. Therefore, HR should be included in crisis management implementation as they prove to be for the organization’s operation during difficult time. They are the communicator, talent developer and support in the event of crisis

Tax Policy and Toxic Housing Bubbles in China

This paper explores the effects of a government tax policy in a growth model with economic transition and toxic housing bubbles applied to China. Such a policy combines taxing entrepreneurs with a one-time redistribution to workers in the same period. Under the tax policy, we find that the welfare improvement for workers is non-monotonic. In particular, there exists an optimal tax at which social welfare is maximized. Moreover, we consider the welfare effects of setting the tax at its optimum. We show that the tax policy can be welfare-enhancing, compare to the case without active policies. The optimal tax may also yield a higher level of welfare than the case even without housing bubbles. Finally, we calibrate the model to China. Our quantitative results show that the optimal tax rate is about 23 percent, and social welfare is significantly improved with such a tax policy

Variety Expansion Redux: A Cross-Country Estimation of the Spillover Effects of Innovation and Imitation

The complex interactions between imitation and innovation are frequently examined in endogenous growth models: imitation serves as a stepping stone to innovation; innovation exhibits spillover to imitation; for both, the accumulative stock provides a standing-on-shoulders e¤ect to further growth. However, empirical estimation of these concepts in true Romerian product variety interpretation is scarce. This is due to variety expansion often being treated only as imitative activities in the relatively popular Schumpeterian interpretation to innovation. Using an overlapping generations framework that models innovation and imitation as semi-symmetric ideas production functions, this paper estimates these spillover e¤ects using cross-country data by treating each 4-digit ISIC industries as a separate industrial variety. We find robust and significant estimates for all three spillover effects, with both imitation and innovation being complementary to each other. In addition, the growth regressions also reaffirm the significance of product variety expansion as a source of innovation-driven growth

Cognitive radio network in vehicular ad hoc network (VANET): a survey

Cognitive radio network and vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) are recent emerging concepts in wireless networking. Cognitive radio network obtains knowledge of its operational geographical environment to manage sharing of spectrum between primary and secondary users, while VANET shares emergency safety messages among vehicles to ensure safety of users on the road. Cognitive radio network is employed in VANET to ensure the efficient use of spectrum, as well as to support VANET’s deployment. Random increase and decrease of spectrum users, unpredictable nature of VANET, high mobility, varying interference, security, packet scheduling, and priority assignment are the challenges encountered in a typical cognitive VANET environment. This paper provides survey and critical analysis on different challenges of cognitive radio VANET, with discussion on the open issues, challenges, and performance metrics for different cognitive radio VANET applications

Performance modelling of adaptive VANET with enhanced priority scheme

In this paper, we present an analytical and simulated study on the performance of adaptive vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET) priority based on Transmission Distance Reliability Range (TDRR) and data type. VANET topology changes rapidly due to its inherent nature of high mobility nodes and unpredictable environments. Therefore, nodes in VANET must be able to adapt to the ever changing environment and optimize parameters to enhance performance. However, there is a lack of adaptability in the current VANET scheme. Existing VANET IEEE802.11p’s Enhanced Distributed Channel Access; EDCA assigns priority solely based on data type. In this paper, we propose a new priority scheme which utilizes Markov model to perform TDRR prediction and assign priorities based on the proposed Markov TDRR Prediction with Enhanced Priority VANET Scheme (MarPVS). Subsequently, we performed an analytical study on MarPVS performance modeling. In particular, considering five different priority levels defined in MarPVS, we derived the probability of successful transmission, the number of low priority messages in back off process and concurrent low priority transmission. Finally, the results are used to derive the average transmission delay for data types defined in MarPVS. Numerical results are provided along with simulation results which confirm the accuracy of the proposed analysis. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed MarPVS results in lower transmission latency and higher packet success rate in comparison with the default IEEE802.11p scheme and greedy scheduler scheme

Assessing Malaysia’s creative industry: progress and policies in the case of the film industry

This paper explores the performance of local movies at the Malaysian box-office circuit to ascertain and analyse the extent of the reported improvements of the sector – it is hoped that the findings can provide a more objective assessment of the state of local films and the policies that have been aimed at cultivating improvements in the sector. Overall, the findings indicate that the local movie industry is still a long way from establishing a strong foothold even in its own domestic market. Santrauka Straipsnyje nagrinėjamos vietos kino filmų charakteristikos Malaizijos komercinių įmonių atvejais, siekiant nustatyti ir išanalizuoti patobulinimų, apie kuriuos buvo oficialiai paskelbta, sektoriaus mastą – tikimasi, kad gauti duomenys gali suteikti kur kas objektyvesnį vietos kino filmų įvertinimą ir apibrėžti politiką, nukreiptą į šio sektoriaus patobulinimus. Apibendrinti duomenys rodo, kad vietos kino industrijai reikia dar daug nuveikti, kad įsitvirtintų net savo vietos rinkoje. Reikšminiai žodžiai: komercinė įmonė, kultūros politika, užsienio kino filmai, vietos kino filmai, Malaizijos kino industrija

Consumption Patterns and Returns in the US DVD Market

We examine the ancillary revenue for movies, specifically its revenue from DVD sales. We compared the sales and returns to investment for DVD among different categories of DVD titles/movies based on their movie production budgets. We find that while bigger budget movies will sell more DVDs they performed poorer when it comes to returns to investment (R.O.I.)