Historical evolution of the balance sheet in the People\u27s Republic of China

This paper exhibits the historical evolution of the balance sheet in the People\u27s Republic of China. In particular, we examine three major changes in the balance sheet (which reports the financial position of an economic or business entity) since the founding of the new China in 1949 and the political, social and economic changes during this period. The content, structure and presentation of the balance sheet (or alternative forms of the statement in use) are illustrated. The political and economic factors driving its evolution are analyzed to assist readers in understanding the rapid changes in Chinese accounting over the last six decades. The implications of the Chinese experience for international accounting convergence are also briefly outlined

Multi-locus Test Conditional on Confirmed Effects Leads to Increased Power in Genome-wide Association Studies

Complex diseases or phenotypes may involve multiple genetic variants and interactions between genetic, environmental and other factors. Current genome-wide association studies (GWAS) mostly used single-locus analysis and had identified genetic effects with multiple confirmations. Such confirmed single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) effects were likely to be true genetic effects and ignoring this information in testing new effects of the same phenotype results in decreased statistical power due to increased residual variance that has a component of the omitted effects. In this study, a multi-locus association test (MLT) was proposed for GWAS analysis conditional on SNPs with confirmed effects to improve statistical power. Analytical formulae for statistical power were derived and were verified by simulation for MLT accounting for confirmed SNPs and for single-locus test (SLT) without accounting for confirmed SNPs. Statistical power of the two methods was compared by case studies with simulated and the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) GWAS data. Results showed that the MLT method had increased statistical power over SLT. In the GWAS case study on four cholesterol phenotypes and serum metabolites, the MLT method improved statistical power by 5% to 38% depending on the number and effect sizes of the conditional SNPs. For the analysis of HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) and total cholesterol (TC) of the FHS data, the MLT method conditional on confirmed SNPs from GWAS catalog and NCBI had considerably more significant results than SLT

Multiple Independent Loci at Chromosome 15q25.1 Affect Smoking Quantity: a Meta-Analysis and Comparison with Lung Cancer and COPD

Recently, genetic association findings for nicotine dependence, smoking behavior, and smoking-related diseases converged to implicate the chromosome 15q25.1 region, which includes the CHRNA5-CHRNA3-CHRNB4 cholinergic nicotinic receptor subunit genes. In particular, association with the nonsynonymous CHRNA5 SNP rs16969968 and correlates has been replicated in several independent studies. Extensive genotyping of this region has suggested additional statistically distinct signals for nicotine dependence, tagged by rs578776 and rs588765. One goal of the Consortium for the Genetic Analysis of Smoking Phenotypes (CGASP) is to elucidate the associations among these markers and dichotomous smoking quantity (heavy versus light smoking), lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We performed a meta-analysis across 34 datasets of European-ancestry subjects, including 38,617 smokers who were assessed for cigarettes-per-day, 7,700 lung cancer cases and 5,914 lung-cancer-free controls (all smokers), and 2,614 COPD cases and 3,568 COPD-free controls (all smokers). We demonstrate statistically independent associations of rs16969968 and rs588765 with smoking (mutually adjusted p-values<10$^{−35}$ and <10$^{−8}$ respectively). Because the risk alleles at these loci are negatively correlated, their association with smoking is stronger in the joint model than when each SNP is analyzed alone. Rs578776 also demonstrates association with smoking after adjustment for rs16969968 (p<10$^{−6}$). In models adjusting for cigarettes-per-day, we confirm the association between rs16969968 and lung cancer (p<10$^{−20}$) and observe a nominally significant association with COPD (p = 0.01); the other loci are not significantly associated with either lung cancer or COPD after adjusting for rs16969968. This study provides strong evidence that multiple statistically distinct loci in this region affect smoking behavior. This study is also the first report of association between rs588765 (and correlates) and smoking that achieves genome-wide significance; these SNPs have previously been associated with mRNA levels of CHRNA5 in brain and lung tissue

Facilitation of AMPA Receptor Synaptic Delivery as a Molecular Mechanism for Cognitive Enhancement

A small peptide from a neuronal cell adhesion molecule enhances synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus and results in improved cognitive performance in rats

Multiple Independent Loci at Chromosome 15q25.1 Affect Smoking Quantity: a Meta-Analysis and Comparison with Lung Cancer and COPD

Peer reviewe

A SARS-CoV-2 protein interaction map reveals targets for drug repurposing

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19 respiratory disease, has infected over 2.3 million people, killed over 160,000, and caused worldwide social and economic disruption1,2. There are currently no antiviral drugs with proven clinical efficacy, nor are there vaccines for its prevention, and these efforts are hampered by limited knowledge of the molecular details of SARS-CoV-2 infection. To address this, we cloned, tagged and expressed 26 of the 29 SARS-CoV-2 proteins in human cells and identified the human proteins physically associated with each using affinity-purification mass spectrometry (AP-MS), identifying 332 high-confidence SARS-CoV-2-human protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Among these, we identify 66 druggable human proteins or host factors targeted by 69 compounds (29 FDA-approved drugs, 12 drugs in clinical trials, and 28 preclinical compounds). Screening a subset of these in multiple viral assays identified two sets of pharmacological agents that displayed antiviral activity: inhibitors of mRNA translation and predicted regulators of the Sigma1 and Sigma2 receptors. Further studies of these host factor targeting agents, including their combination with drugs that directly target viral enzymes, could lead to a therapeutic regimen to treat COVID-19

Gene Ontology (GO) categories and terms for significantly induced endogenous genes of genetically engineered industrial yeast <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> NRRL Y-50463 on xylose-containing medium at 24h during oxygen-limited fermentation conditions.

<p>Gene Ontology (GO) categories and terms for significantly induced endogenous genes of genetically engineered industrial yeast <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> NRRL Y-50463 on xylose-containing medium at 24h during oxygen-limited fermentation conditions.</p

Signature expression pathway.

<p>A schematic illustration of significant gene expression changes for the genetically engineered <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> NRRL Y-50463 compared with its parental wild type industrial yeast strain NRRL Y-12632 for endogenous genes involved in glycolysis, pentose phosphate pathway and TCA cycle at 24 h using xylose as the sole source of carbon when glucose was depleted. Arrows on the left and the top from the parallel lines represent aerobic growth condition and those on the right side or at the bottom represent oxygen-limited fermentation condition. Blue or green colored arrows indicate significantly greater gene expression for aerobic and oxygen-limited condition, respectively. Arrows in red indicate repressed expression and arrows in black indicate gene expression at normal or nearly normal levels. Elements of the signature expression for strain NRRL Y-50463 were boxed in varied colors and marked as I, II and III, respectively.</p

Hetrologous gene expression.

<p>Quantitative expression of five heterologous genes in the genetically engineered <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> NRRL Y-50463 in comparison with its parental wild type industrial yeast strain NRRL Y-12632 by qRT-PCR analysis at 4 h (A) and 24 h (B) after incubation under aerobic growth conditions.</p

Comparison of strain response.

<p>Comparison of cell growth (A) and sugar consumption of genetically engineered <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> NRRL Y-50463 (B) and its parental wild type industrial yeast strain NRRL Y-12632 (C) on a medium containing mixed sugars of glucose and xylose each at 25g/L under aerobic conditions; and ethanol production for Y-50463 (D) and Y-12632 (E) under oxygen-limited fermentation conditions.</p