5-hydroxymethylcytosine is a key epigenetic regulator of keratinocyte stem cells during psoriasis pathogenesis

Epigenetic regulation is now known to play an important role in determining stem cell fate during normal tissue development and disease pathogenesis. In this study, we report loss of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) mediated by ten-eleven translocation (TET) methylcytosine dioxygenases in keratinocyte stem cells (KSCs) and in their progenitor transit-amplifying (TA) cells of psoriatic lesions. We establish the DNA hydroxymethylation profile in both human psoriasis as well as in the imiquimod (IMQ)-induced mouse psoriasis model. Genome-wide mapping of 5-hmC in IMQ-treated mice epithelium revealed a loci-specific reduction of 5-hmC in genes associated with maintaining stem cell homeostasis including those involved in the RAR and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways. Restoration of TET expression in human KSC cultures via vitamin C treatment increased 5-hmC levels and induced more normal KSC differentiation. We found that by modulating 5-hmC levels in vitro, we could alter downstream expression of genes important in regulating stem cell homeostasis like nestin as well as IL-17R known to promote the psoriatic phenotype. Our findings demonstrate that loss of 5-hmC is a critical epigenomic phenomenon in KSCs and TA cells during psoriasis pathogenesis.2019-12-17T00:00:00

Forecasting prison populations using sentencing and arrest data

Aim: To develop a method for forecasting the NSW remand and sentenced prisoner populations.Method: Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models with other time series as input variables were employed to estimate and forecast changes in the remand and sentenced prisoner populations. Models were tested by estimating model parameters over the period January 1998 – December 2010 and then comparing model forecasts with actual prison population trends over the period January 2011 – March 2013. Comparison of actual with forecast remand and sentenced prisoner numbers revealed that both models provide fairly reliable predictions of prison population trends over a three year time horizon.Results: Barring any significant change to policing and penal policy, the prison population is expected to rise in the first half of 2013 and then to drop steadily over the next three years. Although modelling suggests an uptrend in the remand prisoner population, this should be more than offset by a decrease in the sentenced prisoner population over the next thirty-three months.Conclusion: Although the models developed here provide accurate forecasts in retrospective testing, they should not be used as the sole basis for projecting future prison numbers. Future projections of prisoner numbers should also be based on advice from correctional administrators, police prosecutors, legal policy analysts, and others on the likely effects of any proposed change to policing, bail or sentence policy. Construction of a simulation model may help in quantifying the effects of these changes.Authored by Wai-Yin Wan, Steve Moffatt, Zachary Xie, Simon Corben and Don Weatherburn

Stability Trend of Tilted Perovskites

Halide perovskites, with prototype cubic phase ABX3, undergo various phase transitions accompanied by rigid rotations of corner-sharing BX6 octahedra. Using first-principles density functional theory calculations, we have performed a comprehensive investigation of all the possible octahedral tilting in eighteen halide perovskites ABX3 (A = Cs, Rb, K; B= Pb, Sn; X= I, Br, Cl) and found that the stabilization energies i.e. energy differences between cubic and the most stable tilted phases, are linearly correlated with tolerance factor t. Moreover, the tilt energies i.e. energy differences between cubic and various tilted phases, are linearly correlated with the change of atomic packing fractions ({\Delta}{\eta}), confirming the importance of atomic packing fraction as part of stability descriptor (t+{\mu}){\eta}, proposed in our previous work [JACS 139, 14905 (2017)]. We further demonstrate that (t+{\mu}){\eta}remains the best stability descriptor for tilted perovskites among descriptor candidates of {\eta}, {\mu}, t, and t+{\mu},extending previously proposed stability trend from cubic phases to tilted phases in general perovskites.Comment: 15 pages; 6 figure

Output and Price Fluctuations in China's Reform Years: What Role did Money Play?

money, output fluctuation, price fluctuation, structural VEC model, China

Globalization and the Urban Poor in China

globalization, poverty, China

Poverty Reduction in China: Trends and Causes

Applying the Shapley decomposition to unit-record household survey data, this paper investigates the trends and causes of poverty in China in the 1990s. The changes in poverty trends are attributed to two proximate causes; income growth and shifts in relative income distribution. The Foster-Greer-Thorbecke measures are computed and decomposed, with different datasets and alternative assumptions about poverty lines and equivalence. Among the robust results are: (i) both income growth and favourable distributional changes can explain China?s remarkable achievement in combating poverty in rural areas in the first half of the 1990s; (2) in the second half of the 1990s, both rural and urban China suffered from rapidly rising inequality and stagnant income growth, leading to a slow-down in poverty reduction, even reversal of poverty trend.poverty, Shapley decomposition, unit-record data, China

Poverty, Pro-Poor Growth and Mobility: A Decomposition Framework with Application to China

This paper proposes a framework for incorporating longitudinal distributional changes into poverty decomposition. It is shown that changes in the Sen-Shorrocks-Thon index over time can be decomposed into two components?one component reflects the progressivity of income growth among the original poor, the other measures the extent of downward mobility experienced by the incumbent poor. The decomposition is applied to appraising poverty trends in China between 1988 and 1996. The results indicate that the proposed decomposition can complement the widely-used growth-distribution decomposition in providing insights into poverty dynamics.poverty decomposition, Sen index, longitudinal data, China

What Accounts for China's Trade Balance Dynamics?

China, trade balance, real exchange rate, structural VAR, Law of One Price

Why Do Poverty Rates Differ From Region to Region? The Case of Urban China

poverty, Shapley decomposition, China