Dynamic modelling of a three-sector transitional economy

Rural industry provides inputs and markets for agriculture, which in turn provides inputs and markets for rural industry. As the mutually supportive linkages between rural industry and agriculture develop, the size of both sectors increases. Under certain conditions rural industry grows more rapidly than agriculture, resulting in the structural transformation of the rural sector. But the growth of rural industry may hurt the state-owned industrial sector if both sectors compete for similar resources and product markets. To protect their state enterprises, transitional economies have at times suppressed the growth of non-state rural industries. This can hurt the economy overall. We show how the growth rates of agriculture and rural industry may decline, and, surprisingly, how the growth of state industry might fall if rural industry is suppressed. This is especially so if agriculture supports state industry. By suppressing rural industry, agriculture is hurt. The decline in agriculture then hurts state industry, undermining the objective of protecting state industry. Depending on the magnitude of the relevant impacts, intervention to protect state industry may or may not be optimal, leaving governments with difficult policy decisions

INVESTIGATING CRITICAL CHALLENGES FACED BY POLYTECHNICS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Mustapha (2001) advocated that Malaysia is short of skilled workers to meet the demands of economic growth (as cited in Jailani, Rashid, Wahid & Noraini; 2009). Thus, there is a need for vocational and technical education, particularly at post-secondary technician levels (Jailani et. al.; 2009) to meet the shortage. Despite the need, there are many challenges faced by polytechnics. This study intends to investigate the critical challenges faced by polytechnics in the Northern and Central Region of Malaysia on case study basis and to put forth recommendations for practical implementations. Based on the literature review, the tentative key critical challenges has been identified which are the employability of polytechnic graduates, collaboration of industry with practical knowledge, competent academic staff, adequate infrastructure/funding and resources, reputation and perception of institution, design and development of curriculum. Researchers used the concurrent embedded strategy in mixed research approach, where directors and/or deputy directors and/or head or department have been interviewed while academic staffs are surveyed using convenience sampling method. Questionnaires are distributed to triangulate the data from qualitative method. After that, researchers analyses the qualitative data using Nvivo as a tool based on thematic coding and quantitative data using Excel and SPSS software as analysis tools to perform descriptive analysisCritical Challenges, Polytechnic, Northern and Central

Expertise and Dynamics within Crowdsourced Musical Knowledge Curation: A Case Study of the Genius Platform

Many platforms collect crowdsourced information primarily from volunteers. As this type of knowledge curation has become widespread, contribution formats vary substantially and are driven by diverse processes across differing platforms. Thus, models for one platform are not necessarily applicable to others. Here, we study the temporal dynamics of Genius, a platform primarily designed for user-contributed annotations of song lyrics. A unique aspect of Genius is that the annotations are extremely local -- an annotated lyric may just be a few lines of a song -- but also highly related, e.g., by song, album, artist, or genre. We analyze several dynamical processes associated with lyric annotations and their edits, which differ substantially from models for other platforms. For example, expertise on song annotations follows a ``U shape'' where experts are both early and late contributors with non-experts contributing intermediately; we develop a user utility model that captures such behavior. We also find several contribution traits appearing early in a user's lifespan of contributions that distinguish (eventual) experts from non-experts. Combining our findings, we develop a model for early prediction of user expertise.Comment: 9 pages. 10 figure

Remote Ischemic Conditioning: From Bench to Bedside

Remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) is a therapeutic strategy for protecting organs or tissue against the detrimental effects of acute ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). It describes an endogenous phenomenon in which the application of one or more brief cycles of non-lethal ischemia and reperfusion to an organ or tissue protects a remote organ or tissue from a sustained episode of lethal IRI. Although RIC protection was first demonstrated to protect the heart against acute myocardial infarction, its beneficial effects are also seen in other organs (lung, liver, kidney, intestine, brain) and tissues (skeletal muscle) subjected to acute IRI. The recent discovery that RIC can be induced non-invasively by simply inflating and deflating a standard blood pressure cuff placed on the upper arm or leg, has facilitated its translation into the clinical setting, where it has been reported to be beneficial in a variety of cardiac scenarios. In this review article we provide an overview of RIC, the potential underlying mechanisms, and its potential as a novel therapeutic strategy for protecting the heart and other organs from acute IRI

Characterization of chromatin accessibility with a transposome hypersensitive sites sequencing (THS-seq) assay.

Chromatin accessibility captures in vivo protein-chromosome binding status, and is considered an informative proxy for protein-DNA interactions. DNase I and Tn5 transposase assays require thousands to millions of fresh cells for comprehensive chromatin mapping. Applying Tn5 tagmentation to hundreds of cells results in sparse chromatin maps. We present a transposome hypersensitive sites sequencing assay for highly sensitive characterization of chromatin accessibility. Linear amplification of accessible DNA ends with in vitro transcription, coupled with an engineered Tn5 super-mutant, demonstrates improved sensitivity on limited input materials, and accessibility of small regions near distal enhancers, compared with ATAC-seq

Mitochondrial cyclophilin-D as a critical mediator of ischaemic preconditioning

It has been suggested that mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS), Akt and Erk1/2 and more recently the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) may act as mediators of ischaemic preconditioning (IPC), although the actual interplay between these mediators is unclear. The aim of the present study is to determine whether the cyclophilin-D (CYPD) component of the mPTP is required by IPC to generate mitochondrial ROS and subsequently activate Akt and Erk1/2.Mice lacking CYPD (CYPD-/-) and B6Sv129 wild-type (WT) mice were used throughout. We have demonstrated that under basal conditions, non-pathological mPTP opening occurs (indicated by the percent reduction in mitochondrial calcein fluorescence). This effect was greater in WT cardiomyocytes compared with CYPD-/- ones (53 +/- 2% WT vs. 17 +/- 3% CYPD-/-; P < 0.01) and was augmented by hypoxic preconditioning (HPC) (70 +/- 9% WT vs. 56 +/- 1% CYPD-/-; P < 0.01). HPC reduced cell death following simulated ischaemia-reperfusion injury in WT (23.2 +/- 3.5% HPC vs. 43.7 +/- 3.2% WT; P < 0.05) but not CYPD-/- cardiomyocytes (19.6 +/- 1.4% HPC vs. 24.4 +/- 2.6% control; P > 0.05). HPC generated mitochondrial ROS in WT (four-fold increase; P < 0.05) but not CYPD-/- cardiomyocytes. HPC induced significant Akt phosphorylation in WT cardiomyocytes (two-fold increase; P < 0.05), an effect which was abrogated by ciclosporin-A (a CYPD inhibitor) and N-2-mercaptopropionyl glycine (a ROS scavenger). Finally, in vivo IPC of adult murine hearts resulted in significant phosphorylation of Akt and Erk1/2 in WT but not CYPD-/- hearts.The CYPD component of the mPTP is required by IPC to generate mitochondrial ROS and phosphorylate Akt and Erk1/2, major steps in the IPC signalling pathway