China has been both active and cautious in developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). China CBDC has been in research and development since 2014. The process speeded up in 2019. It is ...currently at the stage of expanding real field experiments. Residents in 11 areas can open e‐wallets linked to nine major banks. It is centralized digital cash designed to gradually replace traditional paper cash and coins (M0). It will be supported by the traditional double‐layer banking system. It is not blockchain based at issuance but is technology neutral in distribution. Internet and technology companies may join commercial banks in distributing the China CBDC. In the short run, the China CBDC will help improve domestic financial monitoring and policy implementation. In the long run, it may play a role in the RMB's internationalization or even the international monetary system's evolution.
Price Convexity and Skewness XU, JIANGUO
The Journal of finance (New York),
October 2007, Letnik:
62, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This paper develops a model in which investors who are prohibited from short selling agree to disagree on the precision of a publicly observed signal. The model implies that the equilibrium price is ...a convex function of the public signal. The model predicts that (1) the stock price reacts more to good news than to bad news; (2) the skewness of stock returns is positively correlated with contemporaneous returns, but negatively correlated with lagged returns; (3) short sale constraints increase rather than decrease skewness; and (4) disagreement about information precision increases skewness. Empirical tests conducted find supportive evidence for all these predictions.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are adult stromal cells with the capacity to differentiate into multiple types of cells. MSCs represent an attractive option in regenerative medicine due to their ...multifaceted abilities for tissue repair, immunosuppression, and anti-inflammation. Recent studies demonstrate that MSCs exert their effects via paracrine activity, which is at least partially mediated by extracellular vesicles (EVs). MSC-derived EVs (MSC-EVs) could mimic the function of parental MSCs by transferring their components such as DNA, proteins/peptides, mRNA, microRNA (miRNA), lipids, and organelles to recipient cells. In this review, we aim to summarize the mechanism and role of miRNA transfer in mediating the effects of MSC-EVs in the models of human diseases. The first three sections of the review discuss the sorting of miRNAs into EVs, uptake of EVs by target cells, and functional transfer of miRNAs via EVs. Then, we describe the composition of miRNAs in MSC-EVs. Next, we provide the existing evidence that MSC-EVs affect the outcomes of renal, liver, heart, and brain diseases by transferring their miRNA contents. In conclusion, EV-mediated miRNA transfer plays an important role in disease-modulating capacity of MSCs.
To predict, detect, prepare for, and prevent potential emerging infectious diseases caused by unknown microorganisms in the future, we have proposed the research field of reverse microbial etiology. ...We isolate and classify unknown microorganisms and assesse their ability to cause infection, an outbreak, or epidemic. We suggest a list of potential pathogens and propose a preparation, prevention, and control strategy to protect global health and global economy and to ensure global security.
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) contain proteins, microRNAs, mRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, and phospholipids, and are a novel mechanism of intercellular communication. It has been proposed that the ...immunomodulatory and regenerative effects of mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) are mainly mediated by soluble paracrine factors and MSC-derived EVs (MSC-EVs). Recent studies suggest that MSC-EVs may serve as a novel and cell-free alternative to whole-cell therapies. The focus of this review is to discuss the functional proteins which facilitate the effects of MSC-EVs. The first section of the review discusses the general functions of EV proteins. Next, we describe the proteomics of MSC-EVs as compared with their parental cells. Then, the review presents the current knowledge that protein contents of MSC-EVs play an essential role in immunomodulation and treatment of various diseases. In summary, functional protein components are at least partially responsible for disease-modulating capacity of MSC-EVs.
The incidence of glioblastoma increases significantly with age. With the growing and aging population, there is a lack of comprehensive analysis of recent glioblastoma incidence trend in the United ...States. This study aims to provide in-depth description of the patterns of incidence trends and to examine the age-period-cohort effects to the trends of glioblastoma specific to elderly patients.
The incidence rates were age-adjusted and reported per 100,000 population. We calculated the annual percent change (APC) in incidence using the Joinpoint Regression Program and conducted an age-period-cohort analysis of elderly glioblastoma reported between 2000 and 2017 to the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) 18 registry database.
The overall incidence rate of elderly patients with glioblastoma was 13.16 per 100,000 (95% CI, 12.99-13.32) from 2000 to 2017. Non-Hispanic whites (20,406, 83.6%) made up the majority. The incidence rate of male was about 1.62 times that of female. The trend of incidence remained stable and there was a non-significant increasing tendency for all elderly patients (APC 0.3, 95% CI, - 0.1 to 0.7, p = 0.111). There was a significantly increasing incidence trend for non-Hispanic white (APC 0.6, 95% CI, 0.2 to 1.1, p = 0.013), supratentorial location (APC 0.7, 95% CI, 0.2 to 1.3, p = 0.016), tumor size < 4 cm (APC 2.5, 95% CI, 1.4 to 3.6, p < 0.001), and a significantly decreasing trend for overlapping/NOS location (APC -0.9, 95% CI, - 1.6 to - 0.2, p = 0.012), and unknown tumor size (APC -4.9, 95% CI, - 6.6 to - 3.3, p < 0.001). The age-period-cohort analysis showed the effect of age on incidence trends (p< 0.001, Wald test), while did not indicate the period and cohort effects of the incidence trends of glioblastoma (p = 0.063 and p =0.536, respectively, Wald test).
The overall incidence of glioblastoma in the elderly population remained stable between 2000 and 2017. Period and cohort effects were not evident in the trend of glioblastoma incidence. Future population-based studies exploring the difference in the trend of glioblastoma incidence by specific molecular subgroups are warranted to further our understanding of the etiology of glioblastoma.
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has evolved rapidly into new variants throughout the pandemic. The Omicron variant has more than 50 mutations when compared with the ...original wild-type strain and has been identified globally in numerous countries. In this report, we analyzed the mutational profiles of several variants, including the per-site mutation rate, to determine evolutionary relationships. The Omicron variant was found to have a unique mutation profile when compared with that of other SARS-CoV-2 variants, containing mutations that are rare in clinical samples. Moreover, the presence of five mouse-adapted mutation sites suggests that Omicron may have evolved in a mouse host. Mutations in the Omicron receptor-binding domain (RBD) region, in particular, have potential implications for the ongoing pandemic.
Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) has been classified into three subtypes, namely the European (Eu-TBEV), Far Eastern (FE-TBEV), and Siberian (Sib-TBEV). In this study, we discovered a new subtype ...of TBEV in wild rodent Marmota himalayana in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China, proposed as subtype Himalayan (Him-TBEV). Two complete genomes of TBEV were obtained from respiratory samples of 200 marmots. The phylogenetic analysis using the E protein and polyprotein demonstrated that the two strains of Him-TBEV formed an independent branch, separated from Eu-TBEV, Sib-TBEV, and FE-TBEV. The nomenclature of Him-TBEV as a new subtype was also supported by comparative analysis using nucleotide and amino acid sequences of E protein and polyprotein. For E protein, The Him-TBEV showed 82.6-84.6% nucleotide identities and 92.7-95.0% amino acid identities with other three subtypes. For polyprotein, the Him-TBEV showed 83.5-85.2% nucleotide identities and 92.6-94.2% amino acids identities with other three subtypes. Furthermore, of 69 amino acid substitutions profiles detected in complete polyprotein of 112 strains of TBEV, Him-TBEV subtype displayed unique amino acids in the 36 positions. Notably, for the subtype-specific amino acid position 206 of E protein, Him-TBEV shared the Val with Eu-TBEV, but differed from FE-TBEV and Sib-TBEV. The evolutionary analysis with BEAST suggested that Him-TBEV diverged from other subtypes of eastern TBEV group about 2469 years ago. It should be mentioned that Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China is the plague endemic region where Marmota himalayana is the primary host. The public health significance of discovery of Him-TBEV in Marmota himalayana must be carefully evaluated.
Infections caused by Streptococcus suis are considered a global and an economical problem in the swine industry. Moreover, S. suis is an agent of zoonosis that afflicts people in close contact with ...infected pigs or pork-derived products. Although sporadic cases of S. suis infections in humans (mainly meningitis) have been reported during the last 40 years, a large outbreak due to this pathogen emerged in the summer of 2005 in China. The severity of the infection in humans during the outbreak, such as a shorter incubation time, more rapid disease progression and higher rate of mortality, attracted a lot of attention from the scientific community and the general press. In fact, the number of publications on S. suis (including the number of reported human cases) has significantly increased during recent years. In this article we critically review the present knowledge on S. suis infection in humans, we discuss the hypotheses that may explain the 2005 outbreak and the repercussion of such an episode on the scientific community.
Although the functions of carotenogenic genes are well documented, little is known about the mechanisms that regulate their expression, especially those genes involved in α- and β-branch carotenoid ...metabolism.
In this study, an R2R3-MYB transcriptional factor (CrMYB68) that directly regulates the transformation of α- and β-branch carotenoids was identified using Green Ougan (MT), a stay-green mutant of Citrus reticulata cv Suavissima. A comprehensive analysis of developing and harvested fruits indicated that reduced expression of β-carotene hydroxylases 2 (CrBCH2) and 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase 5 (CrNCED5) was responsible for the delay in the transformation of α- and β-carotene and the biosynthesis of ABA. Additionally, the expression of these genes was negatively correlated with the expression of CrMYB68 in MT.
Further, electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs) and dual luciferase assays indicated that CrMYB68 can directly and negatively regulate CrBCH2 and CrNCED5. Moreover, transient overexpression experiments using leaves of Nicotiana benthamiana indicated that CrMYB68 can also negatively regulate NbBCH2 and NbNCED5.
To overcome the difficulty of transgenic validation, we quantified the concentrations of carotenoids and ABA, and gene expression in a revertant of MT. The results of these experiments provide more evidence that CrMYB68 is an important regulator of carotenoid metabolism.
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