Some Comments on the Assessment of the Potential Role of Transit from China through the Baltic States

At present, with the opportunities of the previous model of world economic development exhausted, only countries building alternative models of global cooperation will have good economic prospects. In this conditions the new role of Russia, China is traced. This article examines the experience and prospects of cooperation between Beijing and the Baltic countries, including within the framework of the well-known project “One Belt — One Way”.

The megabase-scale crossover landscape is independent of sequence divergence

Meiotic recombination frequency varies along chromosomes and strongly correlates with sequence divergence. However, the causality underlying this correlation is unclear. To untangle the relationship between recombination landscapes and polymorphisms, we characterized the genome-wide recombination landscape in the absence of polymorphisms, using Arabidopsis thaliana homozygous inbred lines in which a few hundred genetic markers were introduced through mutagenesis. We found that megabase-scale recombination landscapes in inbred lines are strikingly similar to the recombination landscapes in hybrids, with the sole exception of heterozygous large rearrangements where recombination is prevented locally. In addition, we found that the megabase-scale recombination landscape can be accurately predicted by chromatin features. Our results show that polymorphisms are not causal for the shape of the megabase-scale recombination landscape, rather, favor alternative models in which recombination and chromatin shape sequence divergence across the genome.

Translational buffering by ribosome stalling in upstream open reading frames

Upstream open reading frames (uORFs) are present in over half of all human mRNAs. uORFs can potently regulate the translation of downstream open reading frames by several mechanisms: siphoning away scanning ribosomes, regulating re-initiation, and allowing interactions between scanning and elongating ribosomes. However, the consequences of these different mechanisms for the regulation of protein expression remain incompletely understood. Here, we performed systematic measurements on the uORF-containing 5′ UTR of the cytomegaloviral UL4 mRNA to test alternative models of uORF-mediated regulation in human cells. We find that a terminal diproline-dependent elongating ribosome stall in the UL4 uORF prevents decreases in main ORF translation when ribosome loading onto the mRNA is reduced. This uORF-mediated buffering is insensitive to the location of the ribosome stall along the uORF. Computational kinetic modeling based on our measurements suggests that scanning ribosomes dissociate rather than queue when they collide with stalled elongating ribosomes within the UL4 uORF. We identify several human uORFs that repress main ORF translation via a similar terminal diproline motif. We propose that ribosome stalls in uORFs provide a general mechanism for buffering against reductions in main ORF translation during stress and developmental transitions.

Understanding the Method Effects of the Ethnic Identity Scale Items

This study used the Correlated Traits-Correlated Method (CTCM) model to identify the method effects of the Ethnic Identity Scale (EIS) items, both in favorable and unfavorable items. The study involved 4 alternative models of the CTCM to test the suitability of the model. 440 secondary-school students were involved in this study. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used employing R software Version 4.0.2. Results indicated alignments between the data with three CTCM alternative models that provided evidence to understand the effect of the method on the use of positive and negative items that could affect the validity of a measuring instrument.

Health Services Coverage Regulation: an Evaluation of Policy Options for New Zealand

<p>An important feature of New Zealand's 1993 health reforms was the promise to define an explicit list of 'core' services - i.e. the health services to which all New Zealanders would have access. This thesis examines public policy issues surrounding an explicit core of services, and by extension, policies which regulate health services coverage. Coverage regulation is defined as the rules about which population groups and services are covered by a health insurance plan. Part One of the thesis develops frameworks for defining and evaluating alternative models of coverage regulation. First, four key elements of coverage regulation are identified: population coverage; service coverage; whether coverage is implicit or explicitly defined; and insurability for services covered under principal health plan coverage. Second, a formal decision-making schema is developed which establishes benchmarks in the form of lower-level health policy objectives, which alternatives models of coverage regulation must meet in order to promote the higher-level policy goals of allocative efficiency, equal access for equal need, choice and expenditure control. In Part Two of the thesis, the decision-making schema is used to provide a framework for an in-depth discussion of how alternative models of coverage regulation contribute to lower-level health policy objectives and hence to higherlevel policy goals. The schema is then used to value how well alternative models of coverage regulation contribute to these objectives and goals. This involves two steps. First, it involves scoring each alternative model of coverage regulation for its contribution to policy objectives and goals, based on the discussion described above. Second, it involves weighting the different objectives and goals in order to value the contribution alternative models of coverage regulation make to each of the four policy goals individually and overall. For this thesis, it is the author's values that are used to weight the policy goals. Given the judgements required in scoring alternatives and in weighting objectives and goals, sensitivity analysis is used to explore, the impact that different scores and weights have on the overall Scores. The analysis identifies the limitations of current New Zealand arrangements for coverage regulation, and demonstrates the policy trade-offs which must be made in deciding which coverage regulation model New Zealand should adopt in the future. The current model performs only adequately in relation to each of the policy goals. A model with similar population coverage, comprehensive service coverage and an explicit, detailed service specification is shown to improve performance in relation to efficiency and equity goals albeit at a cost of limiting choice and potentially losing short-term expenditure control. In a managed competition system, the same conclusions apply. New Zealand should therefore investigate the types of, services where a more explicit and detailed service specification might be developed, in order to better support efficiency and equity goals in New Zealand health care.</p>

Health Services Coverage Regulation: an Evaluation of Policy Options for New Zealand

<p>An important feature of New Zealand's 1993 health reforms was the promise to define an explicit list of 'core' services - i.e. the health services to which all New Zealanders would have access. This thesis examines public policy issues surrounding an explicit core of services, and by extension, policies which regulate health services coverage. Coverage regulation is defined as the rules about which population groups and services are covered by a health insurance plan. Part One of the thesis develops frameworks for defining and evaluating alternative models of coverage regulation. First, four key elements of coverage regulation are identified: population coverage; service coverage; whether coverage is implicit or explicitly defined; and insurability for services covered under principal health plan coverage. Second, a formal decision-making schema is developed which establishes benchmarks in the form of lower-level health policy objectives, which alternatives models of coverage regulation must meet in order to promote the higher-level policy goals of allocative efficiency, equal access for equal need, choice and expenditure control. In Part Two of the thesis, the decision-making schema is used to provide a framework for an in-depth discussion of how alternative models of coverage regulation contribute to lower-level health policy objectives and hence to higherlevel policy goals. The schema is then used to value how well alternative models of coverage regulation contribute to these objectives and goals. This involves two steps. First, it involves scoring each alternative model of coverage regulation for its contribution to policy objectives and goals, based on the discussion described above. Second, it involves weighting the different objectives and goals in order to value the contribution alternative models of coverage regulation make to each of the four policy goals individually and overall. For this thesis, it is the author's values that are used to weight the policy goals. Given the judgements required in scoring alternatives and in weighting objectives and goals, sensitivity analysis is used to explore, the impact that different scores and weights have on the overall Scores. The analysis identifies the limitations of current New Zealand arrangements for coverage regulation, and demonstrates the policy trade-offs which must be made in deciding which coverage regulation model New Zealand should adopt in the future. The current model performs only adequately in relation to each of the policy goals. A model with similar population coverage, comprehensive service coverage and an explicit, detailed service specification is shown to improve performance in relation to efficiency and equity goals albeit at a cost of limiting choice and potentially losing short-term expenditure control. In a managed competition system, the same conclusions apply. New Zealand should therefore investigate the types of, services where a more explicit and detailed service specification might be developed, in order to better support efficiency and equity goals in New Zealand health care.</p>